Phew!

Background: last Saturday Thomas auditioned BOTH for Wind Ensemble (on Bassoon) and Youth Symphony (the next stage up from Philharmonia) on percussion. [Errata: Simon has confused the ensembles. Thomas auditioned for Philharmonia for percussion, the same ensemble he has been in for the past 2 years. He won't be old enough to be in Youth Symphony until he is 14. So, while he was very confident that he would get percussion for Philharmonia, he was worried that he wouldn't be good enough to play bassoon for Wind Ensemble, would be placed in Philharmonia for bassoon, and then would have to pick between percussion and bassoon for Philharmonia. There, that's the whole story.] The auditions were one after the other, the first one ran late, he forgot his music, [further additional comments: he didn't forget his music, he couldn't find his music because he doesn't organize the millions of sheets but just stuffs them into a giant bag.] and in general he was convinced he'd bungled both of them. Today an envelope arrived from the Flint Institute of Music addressed to him, so stupidly I handed it to him. He stared at it as if it were a live cobra and said that he daren't open it. At that point, the penny dropped and I realized what it contained, so I took it back and vetted it first. Here's what it contained:


He was very pleased. His joy is now diluted somewhat by the dawning realization of how much work this is going to entail. And mine by the monetary sums demanded in the ensuing paragraphs on each letter...