Last night my bed fell apart! The slating underneath came away in one corner so that my mattress wasn’t supported, which was something of a shock. I moved the mattress onto the floor for the night, but was rather nervous as to what my landlords would say when I reported it to them this morning. Luckily Carol and Andy were rather unsurprised – apparently when families rent the dairy in the summer children bounce a bit on the rather badly-made beds and it happens all the time. Rather a relief, and thanks to Andy I now have a perfectly solid bed to sleep on again tonight.

Trevor emailed us this afternoon to say that he has laryngitis and that class is postponed until either Tuesday or Wednesday. While I’m sorry he’s not well, a little part of me also jumped for joy at the thought of a few more days to work on my studies! Andersen no. 11 is proving to be a bit of a tricky one with lots of sneaky accidentals. While it needs to be beautifully phrased and take into account the numerous appoggiaturas, it is also really fast at crotchet = 116. I’m aiming for phrasing, expression and not cutting note endings above speed, though both would be ideal. Trevor really does love these studies, and I can see why – they are so musical and nuanced yet really demand good technique.

Something that I forgot to write about a few days ago is a book that I’ve finished reading – Cadence by Emma Ayres. I listened to her present the breakfast show on ABC Classic FM as a teenager, and she taught cello at my secondary school. The book, however, tells the story of both her studies on the viola and a cycle ride that she did from England to Hong Kong before she came to Australia. It’s a beautiful memoir, challenge and self-reflection laced with incredibly powerful descriptions of music. I found the read immersive (I read about 150 pages on the trip down from Grimsby) and inspiring, both from a musical and literary point of view. Wonderful stuff.