What a Weekend! And a nugget of wisdom!

 We were in Clonakilty, Cork, for the South of Ireland Band Championships.

What a lot of fun!  (I'm 3rd Horn from the right, again!)
 Each of the bands plays in the school hall, at the competition, but also on the street! That was so much fun! I don't know why there's a monkey on top of the phone box!

 I'm discovering how different venues/acoustics affect the sound. On the street, I couldn't hear any of the other instruments, which made it really difficult to know if I was with the others or not.

We won 1st place in the Senior Competition, and part of winning is a Victory Train Ride through the town!

  The Lord Mayor comes on the train with the winners!

It was hilarious! If there's one thing guaranteed to get adults to instantly become children, it's a mini-train! We piled in and started singing, clapping, cheering!

Then, in the pub, they filled our cup with a cocktail of booze.

 It was passed around for everyone to have a taste.

During the night's celebrations, I was constantly surprised at the taking of photos (for Facebook). A night out has totally changed since I used to do this regularly- it's all about recording it!

And within minutes it's on Facebook!

 Would need to either not care or take extreme care to behave well!

(pictures 1 and 3 are from  Richard Tyndall Photography)

I was browsing through documents tonight and came across "Things to Give Up".

Give up thinking you’re not ready. – Nobody ever feels 100% ready when an opportunity arises. Because most great opportunities in life force us to grow beyond our comfort zones, which means we won’t feel totally comfortable at first.

I'm so glad that I sometimes listen to my own (or the internet's!) advice, and that I went ahead and joined the Band. It's one of the best decisions I've ever made with my life.

Phew!

I'm not sure if I mentioned that I joined a new band at the end of August.

That's one of the reasons why I haven't been posting much recently. To say that I'm out of my comfort-zone would be a serious understatement. The standard is very high, there are some professional musicians, some music teachers, some people who've played for 20, 30 years, and then there's me...took up my French Horn 6 years ago, practice as much as I get time to , and LOVE it.The moment I had been dreading came tonight. The other 3 French Horns were absent.

Nobody to lean on, or hide behind!

So, I was all alone. And if that wasn't bad enough, tonight's conductor is a French Horn player. I just knew that every time I'd play a wrong note, he must hear it, above any other instrument in the band.
Kept my nerve until the interval, and kept thinking "I'll go home at the interval if they haven't thrown me out before then".

Got chatting to the player next to me during the interval, and he encouraged me to just play what I can, "you're doing great".

After the interval, one of the other French Horns arrived, and the relief on my face must have been obvious to all!

At the end, the conductor came over and asked me how I was getting on. I told him how nervous I felt, how exposed, how out-of-my-comfort-zone.

And guess what?

He was lovely! Said "we've all been there, just relax and play what you can" .

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

(note to self: you never know how valuable a few kind, reassuring words can be to someone).