It is five o’clock in the afternoon on this rainy Thursday. The pink bubbly has been opened and the music is on – it’s Roy Orbison – and Roly, Chris and I sing the chorus (the only words we know to ‘Only the Lonely’).

“Come on, join in!” I say to Susannah and Darren (our daughter and her boyfriend) who are at their computers on the dining room table.

“We don’t know it,” replies Susannah.

At this moment Roy begins to sing higher – he is building up to a crescendo.

“I wonder who of us here can sing the highest?” I ask, perhaps giggling a tad after one large glass of pink champagne.

“I think it’s you, Sally,” says Susannah.

“Oh no, not me,” I respond, “I’m an alto!”

“If you’re an alcho I’m dead!” says Roland swigging on his fourth can of beer so far.