The gloriously irrepressible Mel, who leads our choir, runs a musical theatre group for young people, teaches piano to lots of Oxford children and adults, organises international concerts between plain-ordinary people across Europe and finds wonderful soloists prepared to sing with us, celebrated her 60th birthday today by hiring a boat and inviting a lucky 150 of us to join her on a trip down and back up the Thames. Mel's greatest pleasure is to bring people together to make music and she was in her element. There was live music most of the way - a group of us have been secretly rehearsing madrigals and a words-rewritten version of 'Thank you for the music', her youth theatre group sang a medley from musicals she has directed, a soloist she found for one of our recent concerts sang some opera and a very talented duo/trio/quartet sang and played folk and other songs.

The goslings (extra) were unfazed. The turtle that emerged from the river and sat on a log in the sun might have been - I have never before seen a turtle in the Thames.


(Looks like I may be back.)