Kudos!

I am very pleased that today's K can lead straight on from Saturday's J and Friday's I.   It may even be said that this K is a direct result of the J.

While Saturday was all about the journey and Sunday was very much about the performance, the weekend was all about friends.   Since this year we were playing on the Sunday we decided that we would travel up to Manchester on the Saturday, spend the evening there and then be fresh for the morning performance, before travelling back to London.   I had even hoped that there might be some time within the schedule to explore the Hotel's swimming pool.

We got to the Hotel around six thirty on Saturday so I pretty much only had time to clean up, get changed and go out to sample the local brew before having something to eat.   One of the great things about trips like this is that I get to spend a bit more time with other members of the band who maybe I don't know so well.   Even though we may have been playing in the same band for several years we may sit at the opposite ends and not actually coincide much; this is our chance to start to build relationships outside of our own immediate circles.   I retired to my bed earlier than some of the die-hard partiers ~ not least because after several pints of liquid and a substantial curry I simply needed to remove anything that involved elastic!

We had to leave the Hotel at 9:30 and both the breakfast and swimming started at 8:00 so once again swimming was not on the menu.   Arriving at the RNCM we had a warm up, run through and then onto the stage for our performance.

To be fair our performance was not flawless, and although we had a few moments of total glory there were also a couple of shaky moments as well.   On balance I suspect that this was the best we could have played these pieces while retaining any sense of perspective, or indeed a life!   As we discussed our performance after leaving the stage the consensus was very much that we should get a Gold Award. So it was with great pleasure but not a lot of surprise that we received our ~ Gold Award.

I should say that four levels of award are made, Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum; at the area festival we received a Platinum award, at the finals although the criteria are the same, I suspect that the expected standard is a little higher.

Everything about the weekend went very well, so total Kudos to those who organised it all, Kudos to the band for the performance, and Kudos to our Conductor who put together the program, trained the band and lifted our performance on the day.

And if anybody wants to know the answer I came up with to Fridays question, content yourself with the knowledge that I was happy.