I’ve been away and now I’m back – but going away tomorrow again. Life is so busy.

I was in Suffolk on Friday for a funeral of my cousin, Val. She was wonderful and also has the most wonderful family. I know at least one of them reads this blog, so I hope you’ll all join me and send them our best wishes in the difficult days ahead.

On Saturday Stephen and I went first of all to Brentwood where we were faced with almost 30 of Carolyn Wheadon’s pupils. It was an historic occasion as we rehearsed Ian Clarke’s new piece, ‘Zig Zag Zoo’ for the very first time. It was great, but hard work! I think this piece will be played and played and played. We finished the morning with Stephen playing Ian Clarke’s Zoom Tube.

Flute players in Brentwood - the first to rehearse Zig Zag Zoo

After we rehearsed in St George’s Church we crossed the road to Carolyn’s house where we had an amazing lunch. Carolyn’s husband, Toby had made this fabulous soup – Stephen said it was the BEST soup he had ever had! So thanks to Carolyn and Toby – and Carolyn and her pupils for making this event happen (they busked to raise the money for the hire of the building).

We then got into our cars, with sat navs on and proceeded to get very, very lost going to New Hall School in Chelmsford. (Stephen has discovered my liking for going around each roundabout 3 or 4 times!)

We eventually arrived to have a really great afternoon with another fabulous group of young players, mainly pupils of Chris Roe. After a warm up including some funny noises, we went on to learn another Ian Clarke piece, Walk Like This. Just to balance it we looked at Greensleeves, Canon of Peace and Hungarian Round. Before the paraents arrived to hear what we’d been up to we played Erich’s game – always popular. We played Walk Like This and Greensleeves to the parents and Stephen played Ian Clarke’s Zoom Tube for the second time that day. It always goes down well. Many thanks to Chris Roe and New Hall School for making this event happen.

Flute players in Chelmsford, New Hall School

After that we headed to the town to try and park and find a curry. Which we thoroughly enjoyed while we planned the next events!

If you attended one of these events don’t forget to enter the competition in the post below.