Bassoon Heaven

We had a London day today. Very early start but very worth it. We were in the city by 845 and saw an incredible metallic pink Maclaren parked outside the St Pancras hotel. We walked to Baker Street and found a super cute little coffee shop for a bit. And at 10am we went to the bassoon heaven that is Howarth. We had an appointment in their bassoon room to spend her Future Talent grant, choosing crooks for her bassoon. The lovely Paul got her started and her teacher arrived on his bike about 20 minutes into proceeding. We were there two hours having a fabulous time figuring out what crooks she wanted and suited then choosing a brilliant pile of reeds. 

We found a brilliant spot for lunch with what was basically a cave in their basement that we claimed as our hiding home from the pouring rain. Despite the rain, we put ferdys raincoat on (and our own) and went to Regents Park. 

The last time Katie came for a future talent audition at the Academy, there was a beautiful photograph of her sat in part of the park in glorious sunshine, it's one of my favourites. We recreated it today in the deserted park! 

The main reason we were in London was she was doing her re-audition with Future Talent. It was a special time, despite it being "an audition". They are friends, it's a family. It was the first time I've seen some of them in person since COVID, and it was a chance to say goodbye to Holly before she moves on in August. Holly has been a big part of Katie's journey over the last four years and we will miss her. We were delighted to discover that Katie's auditing coincided with a lovely Instagram friends too. So for the first time the girls got to spend time together and hit it off immediately, to the point we decided after Thier auditions to go out for celebratory chips and hot chocolate together. It was a really long day but a good one and Katie coped very well with a lot of big demands.