Busy

On July 16 Jessye came back from Music Camp, two nights away for all the Lauriston girls involved in the annual School Concert to get some concentrated rehearsing done as well as have a bit of fun. Rosie, Sophie and I picked her up from school and when Jessye went to get her bag from her locker (they had left directly from school on the Friday afternoon) she and all the other girls discovered that they had suffered their second break-in in a few months. Jessye's locker had the door completely ripped off and her bag containing her school uniform, her yearly tram ticket and bits of work etc had been removed. Luckily, most of the stuff which was of no use to the robbers had been picked up and stored at school but we couldn't get to it that day.

The next day was the beginning of a week in the city for the Year 8 Lauriston girls. At a place called City Cite in the middle of town which operates all year round as a base for schools to explore the city, the girls met each morning at 8:20 and split up into their teams of 4 or 5 to carry out their brief for the week. On day 1 Jessye had to wear jeans because we couldn't retrieve her uniform from school until later that day. Apart from some common activities they all did, such as visiting Parliament and the old jail, each team looked at a different aspect of Melbourne and had to work towards a presentation for their families at the end of the week. Jessye's team researched "multicultural Melbourne" and had a great time swanning about town. The thing we heard the most about was the Belgian waffle shop operated by a young Frenchman they'd discovered early in the week for lunch.

Sunday July 23rd was a full day with everybody except Peter appearing on stage. The girls had an informal piano concert at Melbourne University put on by the Parkville Music School where they have piano lessons.They all did a fine job including Rosie who played her special left-hand piece. I made them pose with some geezer outside the Music Conservatorium.

Then it was my turn at the MSO Pops concert that afternoon. Peter and the girls came along to the film music show compered by Clive James and availed themselves of my dressing room at interval. Jessye was singing the theme from Raiders of the Lost Ark at school and home all the next day so at the end of the week we went to the video shop and took out that one plus the original Star Wars to fill a gap in their education.

On the following Tuesday (25th) Jessye and a group of her Year 8 friends performed a dance routine they had worked up themselves a couple of months earlier for the school dance festival. This time they were the entertainment for Year 7 parents attending an information evening. The choir madam is in sang too.

Then came the day Sophie and her inner circle had been looking forward to for weeks - their first school camp! They left on Wednesday morning and had two nights away coming back on Friday afternoon tired, happy and very grubby after an action-packed couple of days including a ropes course, archery (Sophie says she didn't hit the target once), flying fox, night walks, toasted marshmallows etc. Sophie was excited to see the new car, a Honda Jazz, which we had picked up while she was at camp. We celebrated her return with a visit to Trampoline. Unfortunately, poor old Soph got some horrible bug at camp which gave her a sore tummy the next day followed by sudden throwing up. She had 2 days off school and on the second of those I had a trio rehearsal which just had to happen so Sophie came along with blanky and pillow and slept through the whole thing in a corner.

Sophie was OK and back at school on Wednesday the 2nd when my mobile phone went off during a lesson I was giving. Usually I turn it off when I'm teaching but I'd forgotten. It was the ballet madam asking where Sophie was. She was due there half an hour ago to get ready for her exam and I'd completely forgotten about it. I got rid of the student and tore over to school and hauled Sophie out. We made it with a few minutes to spare and Sophie had time to practise a little with her exam partner and was poised and unfazed. They went upstairs for the exam which lasted for about 20 minutes and then Sophie and I went out for a cafe lunch before going back to school to get Rosie.

On Monday July 31st Rosie had her appointment at MLC to meet the Head of Junior Secondary School, Margaret Horton. She seems very nice and spent 20 minutes asking Rosie questions and telling her about what to expect. Rosie spoke up very well. The climax of the occasion was the presentation of Rosie's MLC Star to her. It's a sterling silver badge which every girl gets when starting there. I wish I'd whipped the camera out because Margaret made quite a event of it.

Thursday 3rd August was Jessye's School Concert which I had been looking forward to. We all went and things were going swimmingly with the wind band sounding decent and Jessye making her first appearance of the night with the string orchestra. As they were getting ready Rosie, who had been looking a little miserable for a while, said she needed a drink of water. I took her out and before we could make it out of the auditorium she threw up on the nice Lauriston carpet. Seemed like the Sophie disease had struck again. To cut a long story short I took Rosie home after attempting to look inconspicuous while cleaning up the mess on the carpet in the middle of Jessye's item which sounded great incidentally. Peter and Sophie stayed and came home in a taxi with Jessye. The next morning I went to see how the sickie was and found to my horror that Jessye had suddenly thrown up in the middle of the night too (too suddenly to make it to the bathroom). She and Rosie lay around for a day and then were much better.

On Sunday 6th August while Sophie was at a birthday party, Jessye, Rosie and I went to visit the new baby of a good pianist friend, Caroline Almonte, who's played in various chamber music groups with me and is often a soloist with the MSO. She played in the Pops concert I mentioned earlier as a soloist and then at 2 pm the next day gave birth to her first daughter! Elise, the baby, was 13 days old when we visited and so cute. We all had a hold.

That night I played at the 70th birthday party of a friend of a friend. It was a trio concert followed by dinner and it was held at the Australia Club. What a grand place. It looked as it must have a hundred years ago and we had a good poke around the place before the guests arrived.

Rosie has been off the steroid for about a week I think and there have been no adverse effects. Her last MRI looked good to Wirginia who said the swelling and the AVM looked smaller so she was pleased. The next is scheduled for end of September. Susan the physio came this morning and worked with Rosie for an hour and a half. Rosie is gaining strength and making progress in the control of her leg and hand.