Friday night found me anxiously watching the boys perform in their school band competition. Quite what disaster I was expecting to see, I'm not sure, but the amount of nervous energy I consumed waiting for them to come on stage could have lit a small town for a week.

Anxious moments (or should I say trials) start as soon as they are born and there never seems to be any let up. First there is the hearing test (both referred) then the toddler test (me practically dislocating my neck trying to show them which was the blue block without saying anything and negating the whole exercise). Finding out later both were colour blind helped me to come to terms with that trauma.

Then it's performances in school plays. Subtlety suggesting a small part can be more fun; trying to find out when precisely their bit was so that I could work out how long the agony of waiting was likely to last.

Back to Friday - in the end it was great - as soon as they started to play I felt fine - could almost relax and enjoy it.

And very well done to Matt and James for bringing home the cup!