There hasn’t been a great deal to report here over the last couple of weeks really. I can’t tell you much about the kids cos i haven’t really seen them and when i have it has mainly been either flopping on the sofa or getting in late and discovering that despite being at home all day with a list of speciific things to do, they’ve somehow been “too busy” to do music/EC/tidying etc Despite that, with a bit of pushing and shoving from the edges, they all had a really good music lesson last Thursday; Amelie is getting on much better now she has the right size violin for her fingers and has settled down in her lesson a bit now so she actually concentrates and gets on. R has worked out that Fran is quite goal driven (i hadn’t really thoguht about this but having seen her respond to this new challenge i can see it is true) and so has set her a piece for the Peterboroguh Festival in March and also started her on some Grade 1 stuff. Total change for Fran, who was being a bit reluctant (i think because she couldn’t feel herself progressing) and she’s now very keen to play each day again. Maddy is loving doing chords and she and i have a couple of pieces to play together; she is getting on very well, especially now she’s had a few weeks to come to terms with sitting differently and using her fingers more than a plectrum.

Not sure what else; took the younger 2 for their measles jabs, which impressed them not at all and have managed to waft past a few people. Yesterday we had a lovely 14th December with Marcus, Michelle and Chloe, which was a badly needed oasis of calm in a hectic time and the perfect way to spend a day that i find a bit emotional anyway. Saw Tim, Big and Big’s big sister (who looks and acts so like my cousin that i had trouble remembering it wasn’t at times!) and otherwise just chilled out. Kids played beautifully, the company was wonderful and the food divine (and we were very glad L couldn’t manage all her veggie food so that we could eat it later!)

Got home safely having only just avoided a marital because i had to ask Max to stop driving so close to the cars in front (do YOU want to drive???? i heard him say in his head). I’m not sure how this has occurred; i’ve never been bothered by this because Max and i seem to have similar driving styles and i learned my stopping distances from him (he is just about the only person i have been a passenger for since i learned) but since we got the new car he seems to have halved them and i get incredibly distressed by it, especially at night. Of course, it is probably more to do with the accident, it only seems to be a problem at night when i just focus on the break lights but also that i’m much more aware now of how short the seconds are when someone does something unexpected in front of you and i was actually struggling to stop myself screaming last night. He did, bless him, acquiesce to my request and once he did, i was immediately fine about it. He is a much more confident driver than me and does tend to drive more to the abilities of the car, so he probably is driving closer now the car we have is a bit ‘fresher’, shall we say, but really, i don’t like it.

Last push this week now; if we can just get throguh the bits that still need doing then we can have a nice week next week… fingers crossed. Still have some stock to sell off, so don’t want it to go quiet too quickly, but easing off would be nice!