Three years have passed, but here I am again – three years in which I’ve written an, as yet, undiscovered novel (a satire on corporate diversity policy), continued to manage and design software for systems@work, semi-retired from LLP Group, and with my husband, Petru and my brother Jonathan, designed and developed a new social network app for classical musicians – gigglemusic.

gigglemusic came to me in the forests of Costa Rica. At the beginning of 2018 I began to practise the oboe again after nearly thirty years of a somewhat occasional and undisciplined approach to music making. I now play for an hour a day at least, inspired by my Prague-based teacher Jan Thuri. I play mostly on my own, with the doors shut, or with my friend and pianist Seva, and when practising assiduously at a sweltering resort hotel on the west coast of Costa Rica in March 2018, it occurred to me how pleasant it might be to find musicians near me – a pianist, a flautist, a violinist, perhaps even another oboist, with whom I might do musical things.

gigglemusic is the result. It lets you find nearby musicians, nearby musical events and groups you might join. It lets you contact and befriend other musicians.

It needs users, of course. We released the product just three days ago, so it’s early days. But if you want to play with me, find me on gigglemusic.

Otherwise, in case you want to know where this carol comes from, gigglemusic tells me I’m approximately 4,930 km from the birthplace or Toru Takemitsu, 7,070 km from the birthplace of Percy Grainger, and 8,140 km from the birthplace of Gyorgy Ligeti.