At 7.25 it looked like we were going to be struggling badly with numbers this week, but a flurry of late arrivals boosted our numbers to an acceptable quorum. Anything to do with Wimbledon, by chance? The warm up, Rutter style, with contorted faces and three fingers a la bouche, resulted in some looking “wonderful” and others looking “ridiculous”. Which camp were you in? Having sailed serenely ‘Down the River’, for once we actually made a ‘Perfect’ start and continued in fine form with a surprisingly calm rendition of ‘BTS’. No great calamities. It was going to be a brilliant rehearsal wasn’t it, because next up was an old favourite, ‘BOTW’ which we knew like the back of our hands? Half an hour later, with Fiona seemingly bored half way through as she appeared to be playing ‘Pat a Cake, Pat a Cake’ all on her own at the front, and following a furious bust up with our illustrious accompanist, I think we managed to get past the first line. Even Ced’s impromptu one word solo (well two actually if you count the “oops” which followed immediately afterwards) failed to enliven proceedings. ‘Ashokan Farewell’ didn’t fare too much better either, but at least we can say that we have now got to the end and we are assured that it will become “a firm favourite” (eventually). All of which meant that, for the third week in a row, there was no time for ‘OTR’; no more blue skies; no more melting lemon drops; no more dreams coming true. In fact, I was so disappointed, I couldn’t even face a beer afterwards to cry into. Had to make do with a coke. I’ve no idea what Dorothy would make of it all. But it’s all ok, because Pinocchio has assured us that we will start with it next week. Which probably means that there isn’t going to be any need to bring your copy along. In harmony Haz