A day off!

I met my mum from the London bus and she became the first visitor to cross the yellow threshold.

She came to our early evening concert with the Paduans which was as enthusiastically received as yesterday's, including the piece that most of us singers hated - a modern take on Bach. I'm intrigued that audiences like it - I must see if I can listen to a performance of it some time.

Spem in Alium was reasonable, though I wish I'd had time to learn my part more thoroughly. I hadn't told my mum that one of our pieces tonight was Vivaldi's Gloria. Over 50 years ago my secondary school invited parents to come to rehearse and perform that piece alongside the students. I press-ganged her into joining in and that was probably the last concert she sang in.

70 of us piled into an Italian restaurant across the road for a buffet then back into the church, seats cleared away, for a ceilidh. This is Horns of Plenty, Oxford's street band, who welcomed us in alongside Yeberov, Grenoble's street band. I loved watching their youngest player.

My mum used to do a lot of folk dancing but hasn't for years, but this evening she joined in showing Italians (and Oxfordians) how to strip the willow. I felt faintly embarrassed that I'd asked the organisers to make sure there was a seat for her at the buffet meal. I'm not sure anyone believed me that she might have needed it.