Tuesday continued with a fairly intense work day doing arrangements for the instrumentalists for the weekend and creating some scores for the choir. There was some relief in that the liturgical music practice was cancelled. This is the second time this has happened and on both occasions occurring when there is an additional liturgy in the week!! I was however able to attend the school choir practice which enabled preparation for the morning’s Mass.

Wednesday began before 8am with Mass with the school which went well. I am constantly amazed by how much children remember from just a few run throughs. After Mass all the sound equipment and keyboards had to be relocated to the Higgins Hall for a sound check for Friday morning’s Grandparents’ Mass. Fortunately our techie Tsai had agreed to assist with this and we were done by 11am and I was able to disappear from the office by 1215.

It was quite sunny so I went for a stroll in a local park and pottered about the apt. Choir practice was in the evening and this was great fun. I now feel supported by all the members!

On Thursday I visited another dentist for a second opinion. The visit cost me $52 which I thought was wholly reasonable … I’m hoping that treatment costs will be reduced here. It does seem that I will need significant treatment as the veneers were poorly fitted in UK and decay has crept in. It could be one implant and 5 crowns!

I visited the beach for the afternoon and watched some films at home. On Friday I was in work at 7.30am to set up for the Grandparents’ Mass. This took place in Higgins Hall because there were 1200 people looking to attend!

I was back home by 11am and looking at my phone I saw that people in UK had been trying to get in touch. This was to inform me that Paul Reed, my old music teacher at St George’s College Weybridge had died during the night. If it were not for him and the organist Stephen Hicks I might never have pursued the career path I did.

Slightly subdued I decided to take a good book down to the beach. In the evening I watched a couple of movies and went to bed … early!