Well the result was not as good as we'd hoped. Came 15th out of 20 bands. And this is thing about brass band contests - however well you think you've played (and we did), if your interpretation of the music is not to the adjudicator's liking, then the performance won't rate highly. Of course technical accuracy and detail matter too, so there were certainly bands that created a better execution of the piece overall. Got to remember also, that these are the 20 top bands nationally, so being ranked as 15th best is not a bad outcome. But everyone was happy coming off the stage. We could not have played much better, and achieved our potential. Which is all anyone can hope for :)

Thanks Jon. Happy to explain, thanks for asking. It's an annual contest for brass bands around the country. Bands are organised into sections, a bit like the football leagues. They can get promoted, or relegated, depending on contest results. Every area of country has a regional qualifying contest. The top two bands from each area go forward to compete in the national finals. This year we (Chalford band) won the south west regional qualifier. For our section (1st), the final is at Cheltenham race course. Every band plays the same test piece of music. This year it's a brand new work called 'St. James'. It depicts the fire of London, so as you can imagine, very dramatic and an enjoyable piece of music to play and listen to. Although you wouldn't want to hear it played 20 times! It is going to be tough, as we're up against the best bands in the country. They have all won their regional qualifiers. So we'll see, but the band is very relaxed about it. The achievement was getting there in the first place. Contest starts about 3pm and we won't know the result until 10pm!

Thanks Mike.

This weekend I will be competing in the national brass band finals, held in Cheltenham. My band qualified for the finals by winning the south west regional competition, beating 17 other bands. As regional champions we qualified for the national finals. It's the first time in the band's 150 year history that it has achieved this. Doesn't matter how we do in the final, it was a great achievement just getting there.

Nicely put Jon. I think it's amazing what people will generally put up with. At what point does public unrest start? What would it take? Like you say, when the middle classes and rich are starting to feel it, we may see something happening. Very difficult to change the system we have, and as Laura has pointed out, any attempt to make radical changes will cause disastrous consequences. I'm sure Liz Truss had the best intentions, but it badly backfired.

Who would you say was the best Labour leader of the past years?

That probably would be the case, and I would love to live in such a society, where things are done for the good of all. I recently became aware of a brand of politics known as democratic socialism, which proposes economic democracy. It seems like the opposite of capitalism. Unfortunately we're locked into this expectation of endless economic growth. It actually becomes more important as we get older and into retirement, because our entire income depends on achieving a certain percentage growth on our investments. I'm not sure if this will ever change.

Go for it Laura :) I view capitalism increasingly as one of the evils of this world. Exploitative and not equitable in terms of sharing wealth. It brings out the worst in humans.

I may hook the caravan up and take it out for a test tow. Poor thing has been stuck on the driveway for months.

What is this a link to Jon? I don't normally click on random links.

That's a very good appraisal of the situation. You paint a bleak picture, which unfortunately I feel is realistic. Instead of ignoring things, we should be actively embracing the situation, because like it or not, these people are not going away, and they're not going to stop trying to come here. It's a very difficult one, because as you rightly say, the UK is relatively small, and we don't have huge resources. We have a limit to how many migrants we can take. Politicians tend to make grand statements like 'stop the boats' and control the borders, but I don't hear much in the way of how these things are going to be done, and proper solutions. The detail isn't being explained. The residential barge they put in a Dorset harbour was quite frankly a complete disaster. Plus that vessel only accommodates 500 people. It's a drop in the ocean.

You're right, the country would have come to a standstill, had it been the men's team in the final. It disappoints me when I hear men say they aren't interested at all in the womens' game. Why? Not only can you watch the WSL on Freeview, for free (don't know how long that will last btw), it's super quality. Just look at the goals scored in the world cup, and you would struggle to see anything better in the men's premier league. I'm also having to think hard about sports where men and women have equal footing. For years in tennis, women were given less prize money than men. Why? Maybe athletics is a bit more equal. Watching the world championships this week, the women sprinters seemed to be getting an equal billing to the men, and there was a lot of coverage of KJT in the Heptathlon. I think it depends who are our elite athletes at any time, and that can change. In the studio they had Jessica Ennis-Hill and Denise Lewis doing commentary. Both have been highly praised and revered for their achievements.

Just listening to a bit of Metallica. Never got into them in my youth, but I've now got 'Enter Sandman' with its chugging guitar riff and heavy bass line thundering away. Rock on!

Wow fair play to you going over to Germany on your own. At that age I would not have had the confidence to do that. We've had two holidays around Scotland. The first time was in a rented motorhome and we went through the Trossachs, and up to Nairn, which has a really beautiful beach, with absolutely NOBODY on it apart from us. That's heaven to me :) On the way back we stopped at Edinburgh, and it was at the time of the festival, so very busy. Second time to Scotland was last year in our new caravan and we went to the west, including a visit to Tobermory. If I'm honest, it wasn't as good as the first time. I think I prefer the Highlands area of the country. Spectacular scenary!

I once went to Rome. Didn't like it. Mainly due to the place crawling with people. Wouldn't go to any kind of tourist hotspot again. But foreign travel in general unsettles me, because of the break in routine, the whole process of flying I find stressful, and just being in a strange place. The people I go with make a huge difference. Like you, I enjoy going to places that are quiet, and it's partly the reason why we bought a caravan. Last year we took it up to Scotland, which is a lovely place, but a long way and a lot of driving. We were talking about having some kind of European tour, but I'm not sure that will happen. Maybe when I'm more confident in maneouvering the caravan. For now we are happy to go around the UK, like yourself. We're planning to locate some good caravan sites where we can relax for a week or two.

My scales made me smile this morning when the readout was 72.9Kg 😁

I was thinking of doing that Laura. She will have a 14 day cooling off period on the contract. I do have a few concerns though, about these estate agents getting nasty, and any possible litigation coming our way. I wouldn't put it past them to do that. Maybe I will have a little word with her about property valuations though, and what we have actually managed to sell our house for.

We noticed that the elderly lady next door has changed estate agents (again). This is the third one. Unfortunately she's picked the one we initially went with. They are absolutely atrocious and the agent's attitude is appaling (not just our experience or opinion). They will have over-priced her house to hook her into their contract. Of course if she'd talked to us, we would have advised her not to engage them. And the asking price was previously too high anyway, actually more than ours, and we've had to accept much less. Her house is also a lot smaller than ours. We reckon she'll have to come down in the order of at least £100k. She's not computer literate, so definitely not checking sites like Rightmove. And also the current market is really bad, not ideal for selling at the moment.

Thanks Laura. I've never really had a problem with weight, being of slim build, but what sparked this off recently was that I noticed I was developing a bit of a spare tyre. My weight had gone up to 75.6kg, which is still ok, but I wanted to see my abs again :) Anyway I started doing more sessions on the bike, and I had become a bit lazy with this. I now do a 1 hour session, at least 4x a week. I'm also doing planks and sit ups to try and firm up those abs and improve core strength. However, I believe one thing has had a big impact, and that is cutting out supper time. I used to have something to eat around 10'ish. So I was taking in calories, at a time when my body was not using much energy. Makes sense to me that those calories be stored as fat instead. I'm now at 73.2kg, so not much further to get into my target weight zone. Everyone in the family is now really looking forward to the house move. The kids love the new house, which is a major positive thing. We're actually going back to the town we lived for 20 years, so it will be a home coming. And we know a lot more people there. Haven't really fitted in here during the two years we've lived in this house if I'm honest.

I'm looking forward to achieving my goal of getting under 73kg. I will reward myself with a Tesco's finest tiramisu 😁