So that was it then. A good time was had, lovely company, excellent presents, lots of very rich food, and Mr Chalk and I found the inn to be quite comfortable and peaceful to retire to after each busy day (see my previous blog for details of sleeping arrangements).

There has been a bit of a musical theme to this Christmas. To their delight my son Olly entertained our elderly guests with some wonderful jazz piano standards on Christmas Day, as Mr Chalk and I cooked the dinner. It did feel a bit like an old peoples home at times, but at least everyone was happy. On Boxing Day evening we all sat down to enjoy that wonderful Victoria Wood comedy musical ‘That day we sang’. A real ‘feel-good’ piece, such clever lyrics, I particularly liked Enid, the heroine’s song when she was lamenting about her boring, narrow life, with gems such as ‘no Kenya, certainly not when ya, tights are 45 denier. Marvellous.

Also, quite spookily, Mr Chalk and I bought each other tickets for musicals, as part of our Christmas presents to each other – Dirty, rotten, scoundrel from me to him and Miss Saigon from him to me. Make of that what you will. They are also on consecutive nights, so warranting a little stay in London which will be lovely.

Music is such a powerful thing, and I am a particular fan of musicals for that amazing feeling of being uplifted and energised – wrapped up in a great big musical hug.

Musicals are also a wonderful energetic contrast to the music I play in my therapy room, which is very calming and peaceful, and promotes those ‘alpha waves’ which occur in hypnosis. I love this sort of music too, and it has a very important part to play in my hypnotherapy sessions.

One of the things I shall be doing over the holidays is looking at my therapy room playlist, and possibly revising it a little. I shall look forward to playing these for my clients in 2015, helping them to achieve a deep state of calm and serenity, a wonderful antidote to the stress and anxiety of modern life.

Happy harmonies,
Wendy x