I think I've been quite horrible to live with since we heard about the nomination. I've not slept, I've been snappy and irritable and so I would like to apologise to anyone who has had to deal with me and say that I think it might be over now. I was worried that if we won I would feel like even more of a fraud but I have had such a lovely day I think I'll be OK.
I was a little worried when we first got there. I don't have a natural understanding of football and so getting into the Emirates Stadium was a challenge. Once inside, it became clear that there was another outside on the inside and quite frankly, I found that bizarre. We thought that there were men on the pitch playing golf, which made me feel a little more at home, as the Long Suffering Husband has a club or two of his own, but on closer inspection I think they were ground staff doing clever things to the grass.
The champagne flowed and even my glass of water had bubbles. We talked to a headteacher who said she loved music too and had trained at the Guildhall and I started to slide into the corner. Even people nominated for awards other than music were more qualified than me. I was saved, however, by a lovely lady with interesting pink shoes. She sat next to me and we discussed how we didn't know how we had come to be here. After a little champagne she decided to go off and find out the answers to the competition, which you had to do by talking to all the sponsors at their stands. I decided to enjoy sitting quietly with my bubbles, as in the run up to Christmas that is something I can rarely do.
When the lady with pink shoes came back she showed me a brilliant set of post-it notes that works like a slinky that she'd got from one of the stands. With her colleague, she had been round and talked to everyone and was beginning to have a great time. They'd answered all the questions and entered their questionnaire into the prize draw. I snuck off to the loo, bagging myself a post-it note slinky on the way and then we were called into dinner.
We were on a table with some people nominated for a catering award, the music award sponsor and another school nominated for music. I needn't have worried. Yes, they were music teachers from an Independent School but they were proper Midlands musicians; A trumpet player and a clarinetist and so within a few minutes the viola jokes were flying. We talked about our schools, their upcoming performance of Sweeney Todd, how having a boys school doesn't have the problem of 'choir's for girls' and how they have a joint choir with the girls school for the 16-18 year olds (unsurprisingly, that one is extremely popular!). They suggested that one part time music teacher for 300 children might mean I was overworked. I laughed. I would have been really happy if they had won.
They announced the winners of the competition to go and collect their bottles of champagne, which included the lady with pink shoes and her friend.
The first course came up and I thought it was a small but interesting salad, so I picked a little bit up with my fingers, which I know is very bad manners but I was intreiged and a waiter came scuttling over to explain that it was just the garnish for the soup that was just about to arrive and be poured into the bowl.
The soup was a delicious parsnip and cumin, followed by a juicy bit of chicken with a cranberry infused jus (or gravy to you and I), saute potatoes and a parcel of veg, wrapped in a bit of leek followed by Christmas pudding and mince pies. Before they announced the awards I thought I'd pop to the ladies quickly. My headteacher looked a bit worried and said that she would kill me if I didn't come back in time. While I was there I met the lady with pink shoes and said how pleased I was for her for the champagne win. She said that a cuddle and photo with Roger Black had been the most exciting thing that had ever happened to her.
When I was washing my hands and checking my mascara wasn't running all down my face her friend came in and kindly warned me that I had my dress tucked in my knickers.
I was back in my seat in time. Roger Black gave a really nice little speech and showed us a video of Olympic things and started to announce the awards. The music award nominations came up on the screen.
Roger Black said something about enthusiastic singing and I stopped listening and turned to my headteacher, "Oh God, it's us!" And it was!
We went up and I stood on Roger Black's foot. He was very nice and said it didn't matter because it was his broken toe any way. He put his arm around me and we had a photo taken. Would it be really wrong of me to say that he smelled nice? After, I apologised again for standing on his toe and he was so nice about it. He said, "It's OK I don't need it anymore."
At the end of all the awards the lady with pink shoes came over to say how pleased she was for me. Unfortunately, she hadn't won but I asked her to thank her friend for pointing out my wardrobe malfunction. It was all very exciting and surprisingly I don't feel like a fraud. The other people on our table were genuinely pleased for us and so it just feels nice to have had a little thank you and a lovely meal.
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