That's right, Tomereader - my daughter is a first study singer, so she sang, and her friend is a first study clarinettist, so she played. Busking in Edinburgh at Festival time is potentially very lucrative. Another music school boy busked with his violin in Pittenweem (a lovely coastal village in Fife) during their art festival, and did pretty well. I think people like to see teenagers making an effort. My daughter's friend has a v musical older sister who, with another girl, busked right across Europe; they also did St Andrews on the last day of the Open (golf) and made an absolute fortune from all the Japanese tourists returning home, who just showered them with the currency they no longer required. The very best thing for busking is (?are) the bagpipes - and the pipers can also make a lot of money at weddings, etc. Sadly my daughter has not shown any aptitude in that department, but a friend's son has been all over the world playing in his university pipe band.
When we first moved into the city from the countryside, my children were delighted to have children living right next door. Unfortunately these children made it very clear they did not want to be friends, whereas in the village that we had previously inhabited, all of the children went to the same little school and played together in the fields. As you say, it is now all playdates - not my favourite thing as they require so much input from the parent (usually me), and whenever Madeleine goes anywhere she seems to be taken swimming, or to a theme park, or out for lunch - there's very little just staying at the house and playing together. Recently I had M's best friend round, a really nice girl with beautiful manners - we walked down to the cinema and what seemed to make it for her was just that - walking there. She had never walked into town before, even though she lives not much further out than we do.
R
