Grade 5 is an impressive achievement Mendip. Especially as it is the virtuoso violin rather than the pedestrian piano.
I got to dizzy heights of grade 1 on the piano. My music teacher pulled me from the grade 2 exam for unspecified reasons but I suspect she feared I would fail and besmirch her spotless reputation.
This traumatic episode precipitated a collapse in my musical confidence and I withdrew from the musical world for 10 years. The good part of this was that I was no longer forced to perform for my grandparents on Christmas day
I remained unmusical for 10 years until my first GF at Uni (with whom a mutual virginity was lost) brought the guitar she found in her loft on her dad's farm, and was trying to learn, to my room one day, when I was sick from the cold and left it. After 3 days in bed with this guitar I had mastered most of the basic chord progressions which dented my GFs musical confidence and she never picked it up again. It was musical confidence musical chairs and I luckily ended up with a chair when the music stopped.
I was reminded of my 1st love when I came across what I thought was a Shetland pony on my cycles today as she had one.
But the lady owner of this one told me it was actually a miniature, not a Shetland.
Anyway my pedestrian grade 1 piano was still time well spent though as I learned to read music which is handy.
I thought the violin might go down a treat at the Captains table after dining on the Eddaflora...