If music be the food - well don't worry about it that's all I can say

Fortunately over the next day or so I caught up with the sleep and became quite the dedicated little fiddler. Because TODAY was the concert. (that was Saturday, I am a whole day behind myself, never mind the hour thing)
Now you mustn't get the idea that this is a grand or imposing affair. Oh no.
What we have is, my dearly beloved witterers Doris (she's past it really but as long as she's wearing her hearing aid she can usually be shepherded into the right place*) and Norman** (He's got plenty of quite misplaced confidence and plays LOUDLY ), a sweet, quiet, teenager who may or may not be playing her fiddle (you can't hear it when she does, she's so shy), a wonderful, elderlyish doctor who plays with beautiful tone but not always in the right place, a lovely teacher who always plays in exactly the right place but not always the right notes, a nice young woman who sometimes gets it exactly right - and sometimes gets it exactly wrong, another lovely teacher who plays very well but gets gradually slower and slower as the pieces progress.
And there's me. Well sometimes I get faster out of panic, sometimes I get slower because it's hard to play, sometimes I play in tune and sometimes I don't. *shrug*
And of course there's our lovely, patient, talented teacher who used to be able to play two parts at once, sing a third and shout instructions to the tardy and the hasty to get them back together with the rest of us (assuming the rest of us were together anyway, which is NOT a given). However, MS and time conspire against her and sometimes the combined volume of our errors become irreparable! We start again :) No problem :)
And then there are the other pupils who get to perform their exam pieces for us. The tiny tots who squeak and hesitate (but thanks to teacher are not lost), the older children who will one day be able to play very well. But haven't got there yet. And others who probably will never play very well but still love the chance to perform - who doesn't*** :)
And for audience, we have the parents and the siblings (usually only the smaller siblings, I can't think why but the older ones rarely turn up) Oddly enough, few of the partners turn up either – well most of them are either sadly departed, busy with their own Saturday afternoon thing or looking after the children.
Oh I forgot to mention John, the double bass, who always comes and underpins the chaos with his gentle booming :)
The thing is, we do have moments of brilliance. When everyone gets it and all remember to get it at the same time. And the rest of the time, we have fun. And it's a place for the late starters and early beginners to get together and make music. Or something – whatever.

Anyway, the MAIN point of all this is that today’s concert was all about mememe!**** I did my solo and most of it went right, it sounded good and Teacher and me beamed at each other when we got to the end (together in spite of Norman losing her page instead of turning it). Yeah! I can still do it! J

*Only, usually, she forgets her hearing aid.

**But we forgive him because he’s a sweet lad (29 going on 15) with ADHD and it’s a bloomin miracle that he is prepared to pay enough attention, long enough to play a whole piece. 3 whole pieces!

***Like the little autistic boy - another miracle really.

****Well these things are all really about usususus. We don’t get that many opportunities in the average life to PERFORM if we’re not super talented genii. And in spite of the terror and the stress and the panic, not to mention the hours of practice and backache it’s so worth doing just so we can all do this daft thing together J