A day of soft weather, perfect for getting on with the to do list except that somehow didn’t happen. Lift Chi Up, changed the sheets and did laundry, noticed some of the stone fruit needed using up so halved and stoned it, sprinkled the cut halves with cinnamon and brown sugar and baked it in the oven. Fabulous. At 4pm I took Katie to her final session of Roundabout – the wonderful year-long Conservatoire programme where children get to try a new instrument every six weeks. At this final session, the children and the tutors were to perform for the parents. My heart sank when I realised that the tutors would be playing Pachelbel’s Canon – a piece of music I thought I never wanted to hear again. When I was at university I read that listening to Baroque music while studying could enhance retention and understanding and decided to test it out for myself. Unfortunately, on an extremely limited budget, I was only able to afford two cassettes – one was Pachelbel’s Canon and, by the end of several months of study, I had developed a vehement loathing for it. So I was hugely surprised to enjoy today’s performance. Even more gratifying was the tutors’ end of year report on Katie, in which, happily, their opinion on which instruments she would be best suited to corresponds broadly with her own preferences. She surprised me a bit when we were completing the course evaluation forms though. It asked the usual questions about which parts of the course she enjoyed most and least and I was surprised when she said that learning the cello was the bit she liked least (because the cello pressed against her chest uncomfortably). This was a surprise because, last week. she had asked me to book cello lessons for her. I asked her if she had changed her mind about cello lessons. “No mummy, I want lessons so that I can get comfortable playing the cello.”