Concert

We were up and keen for breakfast this morning at 615. Until we realised it was Saturday and breakfast doesn't start til 7am. So we both got our baths etc and did a bit more packing. She filled her boots on the biggest cooked breakfast I have ever seen her scoff and then went back for pastry and fruit. We watched some lego masters (bake off with lego, what a genius show!) then checked out about 830. We wandered around trying to work out why we couldn't see the bus stop until Katie pointed out I'd forgotten to turn the appropriate corner. At which point we almost immediately found the bus stop....

Deposited Katie, in concert blacks looking fabulous, at the venue for the morning and wandered trying to find somewhere to work after discovering (in the small village) that the cafe I had intended to frequent for the whole morning was in fact closed. Thankfully the morrisons had a cafe and I plugged my laptop into the "for phones" socket, bought a cup of tea that I nursed for two hours and all was well.

The concert was incredible. Katie was the youngest, it ranged up to age 18. All g7+. There was a similar ratio of young people to professionals but the professionals did not steal the young peoples limelight - the professionals took second parts, left solos to the young people, supported and encouraged and let them shine. One of the pieces, Katie opened the entire piece totally solo. I could see her slightly nervous little face at the start of her incredibly beautiful, centred, gorgeously vibrato first long note. And I heard the moment she relaxed. She also had a solo part in their selection of extracts from Carmen. The conductor (assistant conductor of the NYO, he was amazing) had her take a bow. The concert was phenomenal. As the course leader said, the young people were told they could take advantage of the stabilisers of their tutors if they needed. They didn't, they'd well and truly mastered riding their bikes. It was stunning. Even the staff were astonished how they raised the bar for the performance even higher than the already high standard of rehearsal. Such a brilliant performance. 

It took a bit of investigation to work out where our bus stop to get back to the city was but we found it in good time. I had booked us an extra train ticket to get an earlier train to get better connecting train home. I was very relieved we did as the one we had meant to be one was then very late and we'd have missed the connection and been even later home! It was such a pleasure to walk into our new house from this trip. I haven't been away from home for this long in a very long time and I hadn't had more than a night away from this house. It made me realise how much happier I was coming home to this house than coming home to where we had lived previously.

Katie spent quite a while out with Odie and then needed some alone time playing with her lego. She also was very happy to be home. We are now though on the countdown to school. The laundry immediately went on to make sure anything thats going back with her is ready and tomorrow The Big Pack begins.

(extra of her and her tutor of the last 2.5 days, Sarah. Katie loves her. They laugh a lot and work very hard, according to one of the course directors).