2025-08-10: the performance went well!

we had our first gig and it went so well. the crowd was really into it, and feeding off their energy was so easy. we played for about 45 minutes, and most of us went to lunch afterward at a pub attached to the hotel. i wanted a drink, but i was driving, so i had a coke with my cheese toastie and fries. we chatted for almost a couple of hours. it was so nice. i've spent the last...eighteen years, more or less, playing music entirely on my own. this year has been a real reminder of how central the social part of music is, of what i've been missing.

we're taking a break for a couple of weeks (vacations, auditions) and then meeting again later in august. i've already started work on arranging another piece of music. for what we've been doing, there's been a real lack of wind quintet music, so we've had to scour the net for good stuff, plus do some of our own. we played two of our own arrangements at the concerts, one of which was mine.

after we had our late lunch, i went to the bookstore, picked up a half-dozen or so mysteries for my partner, whose to-read pile has dwindled to nothing. grabbed fish and chips on the way home, mowed the lawn after supper. that's my stuff for the weekend done; today is going to be a day of whatever i want, we'll do a long walk with the dogs, make a big roast beef supper, and other than that, who knows, who cares.

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