‘Allo, à bientôt

BAHS Senior Choir, farewell concert, Trinity Cathedral, POS, July 2010

Miss Thing leaves for her Great European Adventure today. As a member of the Bishop Anstey High School Choir, she and about 50 other girls, and a dozen assorted chaperones, musicians and parents will go to Prague, Vienna and Salzburg to participate in the Rhapsody Children’s Music Festival. They’ve spent some three months intensively learning music for the festival–music in Czech, English, Spanish, Latin… and Trinidadian Creole. David Rudder’s Calypso Music and folk classics like Ice in Yuh Ice and Coconut Water are jumping up with songs from the high classical tradition of European music. They plan to do a London concert as well in the last week of July, so stay tuned for dates.

I’m excited for her, as this is her first trip of this kind. I’m also sad, because when she comes back in three weeks she will likely depart for the US within days to start her baccalaureate. My baby is all grown up!

It’s a busy week with arrivals and departures. My dear schoolmate Arlene is visiting from the UK, a trip timed to coincide with the 20th anniversary reunion of BAHS Class of ’90. Apart from being totally in shock that I graduated from Fifth Form TWENTY YEARS AGO, it was lovely to see ladies I hadn’t seen since then. Some had changed, some remained the same. Altogether it was brilliant and fun to sip white wine, nibble on shrimp mini-roti (I’m a mini-roti fiend!) while Sara talked about regression therapy, Marianne discussed her disdain of all-inclusive parties, and Heather sat seemingly bemused by how much hard work she and Cherisse had put into the event. It was missing a lot of people– only 21 of us attended, of the 120 who started BAHS in 1985. But it was lovely anyway.

And finally, my macomere and her hubby have come home with their charming baby, visiting from Amsterdam. Those cheeks! Those eyes! That new-baby smell! I’m in love already after just seeing her once. It almost gives me the baby jones again. Almost. But not quite. Seeing the diaper change, hearing the screaming shower… makes me remember the OTHER side of babies… Next time I’ll rent, instead of buying.