Open note to all:

You will all by now know that I am without doubt the world's worst mother, this accolade (previously in some modicum of doubt) being awarded without farther hesitation last night when my child Rachel, French horn in the Bromley Youth Music Trust's Symphony Orchestra and Concert Band, called me -- I admit it!!!! -- at circa seven pm (or roughly as soon as I had recovered from the stress of taking her, a fellow horn and my best cello pupil to Croydon likewise) to say, and I quote:

'Oops, sorry, Mum, but I got the dress code wrong for tonight and brought all-black when it was meant to be white-and-black' (NB: normally I wouldn't recall these torrid details, but, as it happened both my husband and I had noted to her the previous night that it was one-and-black instead of all-black.) 'Sooooooooo, dear Mum, I'm sure you wouldn't mind swiping my white blouse and driving here by 9pm!..