Choreographies

Only the last paragraph of this great spiel is relevant. Skip the rest - I'm just getting things off my chest.

Oxford's European twins are Grenoble, Bonn, Leiden and Perm, hence our choir's recently swanning off to do a concert with our Grenoble twin choir. Every few years we also get together with our other twins - a youth choir in Bonn, a youth orchestra in Leiden and a dance group in Perm - for a large joint performance. (Our most recent was Carmen - with two Covent Garden professionals helping us out!) In between times we invite others to join us in what we are doing, or we ask if we can muscle in on what they are doing. Very recently the Bonn youth choir asked if they could come to Oxford with their Big Band and get us to sing with them. But of course! They are fun to be with, the young people are just the right mixture of lively and well-behaved and their leader, Markus is a delight to work with - calm, cheerful and in control whether he's conducting hundreds or dealing with one child's question.

We've rehearsed for three weeks and the concert is tomorrow night. This morning they arrived and I'd agreed to meet their coach at 11.00, find it a parking place near the church-on-a-narrow-road where they were to leave their instruments until this evening's rehearsal and make sure that 15 youngsters were met by their hosts. So:

10.00 I leave home for the 30 minutes' walk to the church - on foot  rather than by bike so that I can bring my two guests home on the bus.

10.20 I get a text message from the German leader, Markus, saying the traffic is terrible and they are delayed until 12.15. I turn tail and while walking back home I text the hosts with the new time.

11.40 I'm sitting at home and get a text from Markus saying the driver made a mistake, they are arriving at 11.30. That is ten minutes ago. I phone him to say I am on my way, I phone one host and ask him to alert the others then I leap onto my bike and pedal like fury.

11.48 I reach the coach, whose driver has decided to park on the main road. It's OK. I lead a Pied Piper trail of children bearing drums, saxophones, cymbals, keyboards and music stands down the narrow road to the church. Markus is calm and amused.

12.10 The coach driver agrees that on his way to the youth hostel, where the really young ones are staying, he will drop my guests off near my home. So I lead a coach through the streets of Oxford on my bike - quite an experience. While pedalling I realise I have forgotten to order a taxi for the four youngsters who need to be taken to hosts in north Oxford. I hope they are still on the coach rather than waiting back at the church to be met...

12.20 I reach home red-faced and out of breath, welcome my two guests and phone Markus. Yes, the four are on the coach. Phew!

12.21 I phone a taxi to get to the youth hostel at the same time as the coach and pick up the four.

12.22 I phone Markus to let him know. He tells me the traffic is still terrible and they are creeping slowly to the youth hostel.

12.30 The taxi driver phones me from the youth hostel where there is no coach and the people behind the desk know nothing about any coach nor have they heard of Markus. I tell him to wait; they will arrive.

12.35 The taxi driver phones again. No sign of anyone. As I tell him to wait he spots a coach arriving.

So, for a respite, I took myself off just before our evening rehearsal  for a completely different international collaboration. Dancers from community dance groups in Oxford and Japan were doing a performance around the castle, with the audience following them from the castle mound to the prison square to the castle gardens. The dancers were all ages, all sizes and some were in wheelchairs. And if you happened to look up on the way from one venue to another there were dancers in the sky too.