Setting up

Oh, all right - this is a desperation blip, coming at the end of a day filled with interesting but not-very-visual things. The singers of 8+1, with a few members still to arrive, are setting up their music stands ready for rehearsal in the hall of St John's Church, Dunoon. The stands of several of us are reaching the creaky stage as the threads on the screws used to assemble their bits are becoming worn; the rehearsal is often punctuated by the crash of a subsiding stand.

Not that we are allowed to subside; au contraire, we stand for the entire rehearsal (90 minutes) thereby ensuring that our diaphragms are fully operational - to say nothing of the imaginary bags of messages or heavy animals that are aids to posture and control.

No. Don't ask ...