On the night that the clocks went back and I was thinking about how it would be dark before my teatime, I realised that I needed a new hobby. The jigsaw puzzles and bread making that had carried me through lockdowns – I was so over them. I knew I wanted something to do that wouldn’t involve me going anywhere or needing to zoom. Having recently discovered the joy of classical music, I remembered a recent dream in which I received a message to learn piano. I’m not somebody who gives much weight to dreams but a few days later I was scrolling through the Nextdoor app when, unbelievably, there was somebody I’d once interviewed for the magazine, offering a piano for free. Excitedly, I ‘DM-d’ this friend – let me call her Joanna – and waited. After all she already had five responses. Within hours, Joanna messaged me back. I’d won! Joanna was giving me first option on her giveaway ‘pianna.’

The next day I went to see the Felix Andre et Cie piano model. “I hope you don’t mind that it’s an old pub piano, scratched and chipped in places,” said Joanna. What did I care how it looked – it was free! With a little reorganisation and a lot of decluttering I could just about fit it in my lounge. Advised that Joanna wanted the piano to leave her home asap, I was back on Nextdoor looking for a man with a van. Joanna had said I would need a piano trolley for the move but when I sent a photo of the 145cm wide, not very tall piano to the first removals man listed in my online search, he seemed to think that two strong chaps could do the job. I’d anticipated paying around fifty pounds and I was fine with eighty and the assurance of a move in two days’ time. At 7am on a Monday morning, men with a van arrived at Joanna’s home – thankfully no steps her end and a ramp at mine – only to call me minutes later to say that the piano looks to be around five hundred kilos and hell yes, I need a trolley.

So I was back on Nextdoor, and Google too, and the ‘free’ was fast becoming around £300, plus lengthy emails with every possible detail about the piano and downloading of iCloud photos of the route it would take from the road to final resting place. Then when, with a couple of more reasonably priced companies, I’d bargained that the VAT could be included in the total, availability for a moving date there wasn’t. Meanwhile I was also trying to pen a rave review for original man with a van in exchange for him calling his removals mates to find this elusive piano trolley.

Eventually the seeker finds and the move was going to cost me £150. But, and I hadn’t thought about this before, no guarantee that my free purchase wouldn’t need tuning after landing in my lounge. I decided I couldn’t possibly worry about that because other questions were more pressing, such as – Do I have piano fingers? Am I going to enjoy playing piano? Would my neighbours petition me to shut up?

All’s well that arrives smoothly. Turns out that my new hobby is bringing me daily delight. With the help of YouTube’s ‘easy piano right hand only’ videos and post-it notes to remind me which key is which, after a day’s work I’m in blissful communion with Beethoven, Bocelli, the Beatles and more. And in the words of singer Josh Groban, I would say I’m feeling raised up “to be more than I can be.”

Cover Photo: My niece Bianca teaches herself to play a song with both hands in like half an hour…yeah okay okay…