Verbal High Fives

Last week I attended a national school drummies competition in which my friend’s two children were participating. I spent 3 hours watching hundreds of children perform; only a very small percentage of which were my friend’s kids. And it was dazzling! I have never seen so many sequins assembled in large, shimmering, organized packs within a 500m radius. They really should give spectators at these events complimentary sunglasses to prevent sequin-induced retina damage. But by the end of the event, I must admit, I left with sequin envy; thoroughly convinced that my wardrobe is incomplete without the fashion awesomeness of a shimmering gold sequined number. Seeing as I’d never experienced a drummies competition I went with the naïve expectation that it was all about maces, flags and choreography.  Rookie mistake. It’s all about blasting the music so loud your ears bleed! No, wait - maybe it’s also about synchronization. Some of these teams were so synchronized that they marched with ...