Summer sports

It has been a very busy 24 hours. Yesterday evening Gavin and I attended the Leaver's Concert at the boys' old school which felt very strange to be there, listening to live music again and seeing many familiar faces which was such a pleasure. Not so great sitting through the entire concert with masks on and socially distanced but that is what we have to do. It was a much reduced concert with a program of Baroque music with only string instruments, and shorter than usual. Quite a few musicians were missing due to having to self isolate due to Covid and so we missed seeing the the very best musicians perform, which was a pity for us and for them.

After the concert we had the Governor's Dinner which was in another venue than usual where we could have tables of six well spaced apart from each other. It was an excellent dinner, the school cooks excelled themselves. By the time dinner was over and speeches said (to say goodbye to retiring teachers) it was a late night - made even later for Gavin and I as the offramp on to the motorway was closed so we had a very long and annoying detour.

This morning we were up very early, Gavin walked Xena in the woods while I got ready and we left home at 8.15am to be in time for the final end of term chapel service. No singing of hymns was allowed although there was a very much reduced sixth form choir who did a great job. Then on to an open sided marquee for Speech Day. It always leaves me a little gobsmacked to hear about the talent of some of the pupils - this year the school had a particularly talented group in the sixth form, some of whom have not only done well at school but have excelled at national and international competitions/challenges in maths, physics and music. They have rightly achieved places at the best universities. The star pupil who won the top award was unfortunately not able to be there, and there were many other prize winners who were also absent due to having to self isolate - unfortunately just a few days prior to this after the Leavers' BBQ one pupil tested positive for Covid so a very large group of pupils and teachers now have to self isolate. It is a sign of the times to hear the names of prize winners being read out to be followed by 'not able to be present'. Still, it was wonderful that the school could hold these functions at all as last year everything was cancelled.

There is an traditional cricket match played between the old boys and the current 1st XI, this year it was played between teams made up of the sixth form only. Usually there is a crowd watching but only the sixth form parents were allowed to be present. I took this image of the match as we were leaving, there was no time or chance to get any photos today.
We were home again after lunch and I have been rather busy at home since then with various things, including another walk for Xena.

Tomorrow I was meant to be going to London with some members of the camera club to do some street photography but I have decided not to go - it looks like rain in the morning which won't be great and I have many things I need to do at home.