If the cricket match on Saturday made me think back to Melbourne, what happened yesterday caused me to think of graduation, as I was trying to think of an event where I had felt as proud as I did. For yesterday was indeed up there with graduation day as one of the proudest moments of my life. Lyn was performing at an event up in Bloomsbury; she plays with an organisation called the British Paraorchestra, who were doing a fund-raising gig. Strangely, it struck me that I had never seen my future wife play live before: of course, I’d heard her play in her studio at home countless times, but never in font of a live audience. I could barely have imagined the treat I was in for.

The Paraorchestra usually play as a group, but last night it’s individual members got to show off their skills as soloists. All the musicians involved have a disability of one kind or another, so in the back of my mind I must admit I had experienced a few cries of ‘tokenism!’ After all, there has been this slight but persistent concern in the back of my mind that this project might look to a casual bystander like someone getting a group of disabled people in order to cry ‘Wow! Look at the brave cripples playing music!’ In other words, some kind of stunt designed to boost egos rather than create cool music. I was also concerned that the project was fundamentally anti-inclusive, that musicians with a disability should be playing alongside their able-bodied peers, not set apart from them in their own segregated orchestras. The only way for such concerns to be dispelled is for the music it generates to be as good as that of any other musical group – in other words, the project needs to stand up artistically, or else it smacks of patronisation.

I need not have worried. The members of the Paraorchestra are all first class musicians. I was utterly blown away by all of the performances, especially one blind guy who played the recorder in ways I had never seen before. The evening amazed me, and Lyn, I’m pleased to report, got a rousing round of applause. I have always said she is amazing, but last night in Bloomsbury she amazed me afresh. The Paraorchestra is an amazing group of people, brought together by talent, not tokenism, and destined, I’m sure, for great, great things. I’m sure this will be the first of many gigs I go with Lyn to, and only the start of my life as the proud other half of a worldrenowned musician.