I don’t know whether anyone else is doing this, but I check out the statistics for the day in the hope that I am seeing a downward trend. I can’t help but give a little cheer when I hear that the vaccine roll out has reached another million. The figures seem cautiously optimistic, but as we are frequently told ‘we are not there yet’. I feel as if I am in some kind of no-man’s land, waiting for a sign for when it is safe to put one’s head above the parapet. The days, weeks and months pass by so quickly, but there is a real desire now to get back to reasonable ‘normality’. I feel it in my online rehearsals every week. We are all coping and doing our best, but we want to be back together. But another confirmed cancellation today, takes me further into uncertainty of when I can resume my activities. We have all braved the storm, dealt with our demons, and come out the other side. We just want the sun to shine now, ‘the war to be over’, and to embrace our friends and family again.

I am and have been positive throughout the last months and have enjoyed the strength of support from the communities in which I am involved, and I know that others have felt that too.

This time last year I would have been adjudicating at a Festival and my goodness I know just how much the Festival world has suffered. So many missed opportunities to perform. Yet, there has been a resilience and an optimism that we will return even stronger and more connected. It is clear that the performing arts world, in its many facets is so clearly needed and there will be an outpouring of creativity when we surface. But many opportunities for creativity in lockdown have released new and different ways of working and we have embraced all that has been available.

We just need to hold on a little longer, be confident in our ability to be strong and to look to better times.