So, here we are, nearly a year from the date that it all shut down. Blimey. I keep saying that I think time is elastic – it seems like forever since I’ve seen and sung with people, but equally, I can’t believe it is 2021 – I feel like I lost an entire year.

But hopefully things are starting to pull around – lots of choir members are reporting getting vaccinations, and I’m off for my first one tomorrow. It’s obvious that we won’t all be leaping out of the starting gates the minute we have an armful of one vaccination or another. So what are the challenges we are looking at?

• We all need to get TWO vaccinations. I hold true to my initial feeling that I don’t want to risk the health of anyone for the sake of singing. When we are covered and safe, we’ll be back. As I’m getting my first vaccination tomorrow, I expect the next one to be somewhere around the end of May if the current schedule continues. Some choir members will certainly be later than that, but we will hold space for them.
• We need to remember how to do this stuff again. It will have been nearly 18 months since we started lockdown by the time we get back to any kind of normality, I expect. Many of us will have lost confidence in our ability to sing, and to be in company. I expect to feel a bit agoraphobic for a few weeks.
• I’m going to carry tissues everywhere. I’m a bit of a soppy old get at the best of times, but the first time I hear voices raised in song together is going to make me sob like a baby. Also expecting to cry the first time I’m allowed to hold my friend’s baby who was born during lockdown and whom I’ve only seen through a window. And the first time my daughter has friends over. And the first time I hug my family from down south again. The clever money will be buying shares in Kleenex, I feel.
• I have all these new shiny songs that we’ve barely had time to scratch the surface of! But I’m not necessarily going to do them. I think the first few times we sing together I’m going to do old favourites. Things that we can sing in our sleep, and make us feel happy.
• I need to book new venues. At least one of my existing venues won’t be able to offer us space in the near future, so I need to look at rebooking elsewhere, and renewing booking schedules for the old venues who have been closed as well.
• I also want to do a bit of a publicity push to see if we can recruit more people – if ever there has been a time to celebrate by raising our voices along with our neighbours, this is it!

I’m sure there are all sorts of things I haven’t thought of yet, but those are the ones at the forefront of my mind right now. Like everyone, I am really looking forward to getting back to some kind of normality, and singing with all my choirs members and friends again.

Look after yourselves and get vaccinated as soon as you can!