Year 6 at school number one were out at some cricket coaching thing this morning, but there were a couple of half chocolate biscuits in the staff room biscuit tin, so my time wasn't in vain.

I'm typing to the combined background noise of the second CD I've burned, and the ever loudening police helicopter. It's been hovering for ages. Usually I just want it to shut up. Today, I'd like it to do its job and catch somebody (then wrench the viola out of their arms and..... ah - dream on....)

The phone was going non stop this evening, from the moment I got in, until about 9.45pm. Is it something in the weather that makes people suddenly want to use their phones a lot and call my number? Mrs Mu, with her limited command of English was one of the callers. She wants me to start teaching her daughter again because they're not happy that she 'only get an hour with Mr Smit at school'. Mr Smith is a far more experienced teacher than me, but she is one of those who 'always remembers her first teacher' in a wistful sort of way. Which is very flattering, but I don't think I have the energy to deal with Mrs Mu each week again.

Finally got around to finding my way around the borrowed viola before tomorrow's ESO gig. It's quite easy to play really - smaller than mine - but with less 'personality'. Ah well. So long as I manage to bluff my way around all those notes I haven't seen yet!

That squirrel was asleep in my window box when I got up this morning.

There's a notice on the harpsichord at one school which says 'PLEASE DO NOT TOUCH HEAD OF MUSIC'. I can't help feeling there should be some punctuation in that. Anyway, the head of music didn't appear to be in, so all the doors were locked.

School number 3 were having a 1950's, Coronation Day. The Jehovah's Witnesses kids weren't in as a result. I can't remember if it's to do with not celebrating anniversaries, or not celebrating royalty. Anyway - all the gym equipment had been moved from the hall into the music room, which made it a little tricky to fit in groups of seven, overexcited children. I did threaten to give them a 50's style lesson, where they played studies and showed me a bit of respect. They didn't go for it though. The fancy dress theme was 1950s as well. Sabrina was dressed as a Spanish Flamenco dancer.

There was a squirrel in my garden this evening. It made Hilary's lesson a lot more fun for me. I could look out of the window whilst making helpful remarks about her tone and intonation, and watch the amazing agility of this creature leaping and climbing around my tree and fence.

My living room always smells interesting on Wednesday evenings - I have a small skateboarding vegetarian with halitosis, followed by a grown up who smokes far too many per day. Still - on the flip side - all my Wednesday private pupils pay in cash, which sort of makes up for it.

"Didn't the office tell you? You've got a new violin and two new cellos starting today - except one of the cellos is off with measles"

OK - well there goes the trip to the violin shop to carry on the replacement of things in the stolen case.

A year three violinist who, sadly knows all the details of why her dad is a b'**d, and exactly how much maintenance he's supposed to pay, and what happens when he doesn't. Whatever happened to innocent childhoods?

And then Zak, who looked shellshocked throughout the experience. He didn't know what a cello was when he volunteered to learn one. He thought it was something you blow down, and he certainly wasn't expecting something almost as tall as himself.

I found Kylie sitting on the floor outside my room crying. And this was after her lesson. OK - I'd been a bit exasperated, but not that bad.

"S'not you miss. I'm meant to be in PE but some girls looked at me funny, and it's my fault but it's doing my head in"

Well - as one who spent most PE lessons lurking in a music department I had to take pity on her really. Tried for a while to get to the bottom of the problem in a sympathetic manner, but no luck there - probably because I'm old and I can't possibly understand hormones or being 15. So, she did a mock exam for Austin, who has his grade one in a few weeks. Very generous marker she was too - if he really gets a distinction like that I'll be ever so pleased.

Don't know where she went when she was supposed to be in French.

And no - I have no idea why 'posting is temporarily disabled' in the comments box. It's annoying, but no more annoying than people who won't answer the phone.

It's true what they say about helpdesks and call centres and helplines isn't it? I'm currently on hold with Blueyonder (who up to now have been very good) to get them to come and install me a new modem and link it up to my new computer. Clearly no-one has asked them to do this before, because it has them totally baffled. Until 5 minutes ago, I was being passed from Customer Service, to Technical Support, to Sales, to Customer Service to..... well - you see the problem. Eventually I tried bursting into tears at a sales consultant when she told me that they couldn't sell me a new modem because the screen said I already had one. So now, she's agreed not to pass me round anymore departments and just play the Flower Duet to me, with a boom-tishy backing track.

I still need to phone so many more people - it looks as though there will be a good ol' tacky 'sad story' feature in the local rag to try & recover my instruments. Anyone for a reward and some eternal gratitude??