Sunday and Monday were reserved for some serious practice sessions for Dindi Moon, the 7-person steel pan ensemble we have put together for the Barging Festival and concert performances in and around Moissac in early August. Joe and Karen, our Swiss-American friends were coming down from Zurich, bringing a drummer friend of theirs, Sergio Beresovsky, who will also come down to Moissac. The practice was taking place in the Bern rehearsal rooms of Ferrum Helvetica, the band led by Claudio Pini, whose arrangements we play a lot of with Pans on Fire back home. So it was a bit like playing on hallowed ground.

It was a very good practice, and Sergio picked up on everything very quickly - he is a very good drummer. So we were a bit surprised when Karen said at the end of the day that they were going back to Zurich that night, and would not be returning tomorrow. This was a little embarrassing since Rita had already booked a hotel room for them. But they said they needed to go home to prepare their AirBnB home for a new arrival on Monday. So we took them to the train station and then headed to the hotel to face the music. But the receptionist was nice and only charged half-price, due to them being unable to rent the room that night.

But the good news was that we got to go home, instead of having dinner out that night, and could join Mutti in front of the TV to watch Switzerland v Brazil. And they went one better than Australia by holding Brazil to a 1-1 draw!  So Rita and Mutti got bragging rights, at least until both teams play their next games. Sadly, assuming that both teams could be runners-up in their groups (C & E), the best they can do is meet in a Semi-Final, not in the Final.