My view

As I sat cutting her last festival dress today... the fabulous monkey socks before me as she played her clarinet. After a brilliant practise of her proper stuff, she asked to get out her old clarinet. It surprised her how small it was, how horrible it sounded and how limiting it was! She won't let it go but she was quite soon happy to put it away. The only plus side, she felt, was that she could reach the bottom E with ease.

Life is quite music-centric at the moment in preparation for the festival. She's working really really hard. A couple of hours most days. A few dramas and tantrums but a lot of very hard work and fun too.