Thursday 2 February 2012

A great concert and great news for Ally

Tonight I went straight from school to a wind and jazz concert at Ally's school at the Fotheringay Centre. James couldn't make it because his plane back from London was delayed, which was a shame because it was the last concert for the 6th years and it was a really good one. The jazz band played "In the mood" and "Beyond the Sea", "Lullaby of Broadway" and even the theme tune from Family Guy! There were lots of other good tunes from the wind band, guitar ensemble and flute group, then Ally was back on with the Jazz Collective which consisted of his jazz quartet, a pianist and two guitarists. they were partly improvising during "Take your Pick" by Hank Mobley and "My Shining Hour" by Harold Arlen, and Ally played several solos. Then everyone was back on stage for the finale which included music from The Blues Brothers and then my favourite "Highland Cathedral", with a bagpiper holding his own ably while playing with the whole concert band. I love that tune, I first heard it at a Scottish Proms concert at the Royal Concert Hall, introduced by Gerard Kelly, about ten years ago, and I have heard it many times since, I like it best when it is played with a concert band as well as bagpipes and it all rises to a crescendo, I don't think it is so stirring with bagpipes alone. It feels so Scottish but was in fact written by two German guys in the 1980s for a Highland games held in Germany! I was sitting with Barbara and Neil and then at the end I went over to speak to Kathryn and her lovely Mum, who was looking very well. Then I found Ally and he told me that he heard this afternoon that he has an unconditional offer to study Law at Glasgow University! Needless to say I was delighted and Ally even let me hug him so I think he is too! We talked about it all the way home in the car; Ally is very pleased but he is keen on History and Classics too, so I think he will wait until he hears about all his applications before he finally decides. How nice for him to have the choice! He also got the results of his LNAT today and he was one of the top in his year group. Ally asked me to let him tell James himself, so I said that he had about thirty seconds when we got home or I would burst with the excitement. So he told James as soon as we arrived and James was very pleased and they had a manly hug. Davie came running downstairs and jumped on Ally with joy, and I screamed with happiness so loudly that poor Jack got a fright and ran out of the cat flap, which made me feel a bit guilty, because he skidded on the tiles on the way and slid against the kitchen unit. He's back inside now but I think he's getting more nervous as he gets older. Ally has had lots of messages on Facebook and he told me that Jamie put a "status" up to congratulate him. What a good day!