Sing

We have just had a few amazing days, shuttling back and forwards between here and West Yorkshire to help the Sunshines move house. After years of renting they now have a place of their own, and it's delightful.

On Monday I sang happily round their old house as I packed boxes. There's a lovely spiritual called 'Down to the River' that I couldn't get out of my head, so I sang it on and off all day. And there is another reason for singing in that house.

There's no lock on the bathroom door, which makes it what I call a 'singing loo'. It reminds me of Girl Guide camps when the height of sophistication was a chemical toilet in a tent. So as not to be interrupted you sing while you're in there, and the default song was always 'Lloyd George Knew My Father' to the tune of 'Onward, Christian Soldiers'. (It works to Land of Hope and Glory, too.) For the benefit of any of you who haven't known this song from the cradle, the words are

Lloyd George knew my father
Father knew Lloyd George
Lloyd George knew my father
Father knew Lloyd George.
Lloyd George knew my father... etc, etc

So my Girl Guide training came into good use whenever I answered the call. Before long, singing becomes second nature. I'd sing in the loo even if there was nobody else in the house.

After we got home that night, there was a text from LOS. 'Our neighbour said he enjoyed your singing. He said it made him feel very peaceful.'

I felt quite honoured. So my rendering of that beautiful spiritual had touched somebody's heart. Then it turned out that he heard me through the bathroom window.

Oh, and he's deaf. Now, there's a voice that sounds really great when heard by a deaf man through a plate glass window.