<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; = charset=iso-8859-1"> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.2800.1400" name=GENERATOR> <STYLE></STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY bgColor=#ffffff> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Hello List and Arthur = Marino</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Thanks for your comment. The swimming = lesson went swimmingly, the violin lesson went extremely well and as a result we = went to Brighton and did some shopping in the major complex there called = "Churchill Square" Maxim has just left his Primary school in order to go = "privately" whre his talents will, we hope, be noticed and built upon. Difficult to say = when he's only 6yrs old, but smaller class of 7 (seven) should give a better = Teacher:Pupil ratio than 26:1. We have High Hopes! We needed a "bespoke" uniform as = dictated by his "new" school. (Founded in 1512 - so older than the square piano!)</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Yes, that string repair on the Astor = & Horwood was remarkably neat. I treat each of the two ends to be knotted in the = same way by making them resemble a long-tailed "Omega" . Then I bend the rounded = end to about 45 deg. before marrying the two into the well-known configuration = of a "Reef Knot". Mostly I do this for broken Bass covered strings in order = to preserve the integrity of the sound. I have even stripped back the = copper covering to give more available core without compromising the tonal = quality of a matched pair! Amazing what you can get away with when you = try!</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>TTFN & Regards from a Moon-lit = Sussex Downlands village....</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Michael G = (UK)</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>