It has been an interesting first 9 days. Two of my choirs have successfully returned and the third will restart tomorrow. I suppose it is inevitable that we will find more members testing positive, but the reality of us being in a far better position than we were 12 months ago is tangible. We also know more as a choir and we will advise and guide our members accordingly. The one over-riding factor is that everyone wants to sing again and the sooner we can focus on the music, the better!

There have been a couple of things that have caught my eye this week! The first and perhaps most astonishing and yet unsurprising are the comments from the Chair of Ofqual that school music lessons be suspended and music teachers should be redeployed to help cover teacher absence of other subjects! Admittedly, he didn’t just single out music as a subject to be temporarily suspended, but the suggestion should not have been made in the first place. It is ill-judged and insulting, and someone in this high level position should know better!

I will keep my observations quite minimal on the other aspects that have caught my eye this week. However, it seems somewhat ironic that the four people who were accused of removing a statue in Bristol and cleared of criminal damage have been referred to as the ‘Colston’ 4!

In other news, anyone wishing to enter Australia should watch ‘Nothing to Declare’, the Border Security programme on Sky.com – some people really get a hard time!

…and finally, when asking for information, it is important to consider the baseline data and the parameters in which the request is made in order to achieve an accurate comparison to produce a useful analysis. I appreciate that the subtleties of information collection may have passed me by, but a request made earlier this week, tipped me over the edge! So, much so that I had to have a glass of water…no really I did!

Anyway let’s see how this week works out! I should point out that my comments are mine alone, but to be able to air them goes someway to keeping me sane! Thanks for all your support!