Waiting Room

Today got off to a lovely start with a video coming up on Facebook memories showing a two year old Miss E and a four month old Miss L in bed with us in a holiday cottage in North Yorkshire. Miss E is so sweet talking about her sister and how much she loves her! I can't believe they were ever so tiny!! 
The day was spent tidying up. A little more effectively than yesterday as thankfully I'm feeling a lot better.
It got hotter and hotter throughout the day and I was flagging even with the fans on full blast in my bedroom, the landing and the kitchen. 33 degrees today. Uuuuughhh!!!
I had to pick up Miss E at 2pm to take her over to Milton Keynes for her piano exam.
I've known about the exam for ages but as with so many things in my life it's snuck up on me and taken me by surprise. I hadn't really given it a thought other than organising to get Miss E early from school.
When we got there and were shown into the waiting room - past all the signs telling us to be quiet because exams were in progress - I realised I was re-living my A-Level history exam nightmare for the second time in a month. An exam that I hadn't registered was coming and hadn't given any importance to in my mind.
Miss E wasn't too fazed however. She thinks half an hour practice a week is plenty!!!
While we waited we got chatting to the other mum in the room who was waiting for her daughter to come out. She said with intense feeling "won't it be lovely not to hear these pieces over and over again?"
I could hardly say I've never heard any of Miss E's pieces a) because she's never practiced them at home and b) because it hadn't occurred to me that this is a proper, actual exam and I should actually check that Miss E has done any preparation whatsoever. It's hard to explain how things just creep up on me and arrive before I've registered that anything out of the ordinary is happening.
Sigh.
When the woman's daughter came out she starting grilling her on how she'd done and what mistakes she'd made. The girl was only Miss E's age and she was all red and a bit upset. The mum actually opened the music book and made her point out where she'd gone wrong. Jesus!! I may be a bit disengaged but I'd rather be like that than a horrible pushy over-aspirational mum.
While Miss E was in doing the exam another mum came in and was saying she'd kept her son off school all day so he could practise because he wasn't good enough (what???????) and that he had hardly slept the night before because he was so nervous. She also said she was sick to death of hearing the same pieces over and over.
I do think I need to be a bit less laissez-faire so Miss E appreciates that these things are important and do matter but never like those other two mums. Do your best and that's good enough for me!
Obviously doing no practise is not doing her best so we had words on the way home about how important it is to make more of an effort. 
And mummy will too!
When Miss E came out she was smiling and said it had gone OK. Then she said that in the musical knowledge bit she's said an A was an E. Oops!!!!
We'll see!
Miss T, Mr K and the adorable Miss C arrived at about 5.30pm. It was soooooooooo good to see Miss T, lovely to see Mr K again (it's been almost  three years since the last time!!) and absolutely fantastic to meet my gorgeous God-Daughter! Nine months old and so like Miss L at that age - smiley, cuddly, funny and charming. Brilliant!!!
Archie loves them all and has completely adopted them into his pack. I was worried he might accidentally scratch Miss C or knock her over in his excitement but after an initial flurry of craziness he was amazing with her and she loved him!!
We had a scrummy dinner courtesy of M&S - salads, roast chicken, lamb koftas, coleslaw, spinach and feta parcels. It was DELICIOUS!!!
We stayed up far too late chatting, eating and drinking beer. I made it to bed at about 1am. Far too late for me now!
It was like an oven everywhere. Still over thirty degrees in the house!  So ridiculously hot!!