Day 7 - Continued...

Apologies for the rather sporadic blogging - infrequent access to internet is proving to be a bit of a nuisance up here.
Anyway, back to Bakewell. You've heard about the piano, well... now more about the other parts of our day:
1) First rain -the good news about this is that I got to don the incredibly high quality and expensive water/wind proof jacket that I'd invested in in St Alban's last week. The bad news is that the blissfully long winding descent into Bakewell was marred by sheets of rain gushing into our faces.
2) Bakewell Pudding - mum can testify that this was delicious. Alice and I, however, were busy consuming either coronation chicken jackets, steak and ale pie, or hunks of Cadbury's Dairy Milk. (Dairy Milk seems to be making regular appearances on this trip.)
3) Tessa - My dear friend Tessa came to sing with us in Bakewell. After a long morning's teaching she jumped in the car, raced up the motorway and was with us to perform a pot-pourri of folksongs, a little Mozart, and a beautifully-delivered Novello number, 'why do the wrong people travel?' which had the audience chuckling along, in typical Tessa style. It was a joy to have her talent, spirit and beautiful singing on board for this concert. Thanks Tess!
4) Andrew, Anne and the penne - So by the time the concert was finished and we were all packed up it was getting on for 9.30pm. Do you think there is anywhere serving food at this time in Bakewell? No, in fact, I don't think anywhere serves food at this time any further north than the Watford Gap. However, Andrew and Anne, our superb hosts for the evening, came up trumps with a delicious bowl of Penne Ragu with a spattering of parmeggiano - happy post-concert customers we were. Mille grazie to Andrew and Anne (and Georgia the dog) for looking after us so well.
5)Julia and Dan - Julia, a friend of Alice's from schooldays and her boyfriend, Dan, took the time out of their busy London lives to come up and support our Bakewell appearance. How this sort of commitment to the cause warms our hearts!

All in all, our day in Bakewell was a triumph. Thank you to all who contributed to this leg of the journey. Special thanks should be made to Mark at the Medway Centre for facilitating all aspects of the concert so impressively and then presenting us with a bottle of prosecco. Cheers!