I’ve been on twitter for about a year now. I think I’ve avoided becoming a twitter obsessive but I enjoy using it – it’s fun, amusing, and informative. But if for me it’s just an indulgence it’s particularly nice when it can be the means of doing something real and positive.

The Oxford Twitter Choir @OxTwitChoir was created out of nothing a year ago by @Ox_Bex. A group of people who had either only ‘met’ on twitter, or had met in the real world through twitter, got together to sing Christmas carols at the Oxford Castle Christmas market in aid of charity. I’d only just started tweeting so didn’t feel right about going.

But a year later I’ve (real world) met quite a few of the Oxford twitterati and ‘met’ and chatted with many more. So when @Ox_Bex announced a repeat performance in aid of Sobell House Hospice I agreed to go along.

Which is how yesterday I joined up with around two dozen others at the castle clutching our song-sheets and determined to sing as loudly as possible in the hope that something tuneful would emerge and people would give lots of money. Gareth Malone would be proud of us – this was genuine grass-roots community singing in action. With a few notable exceptions none of us had any discernable singing training, but does that matter? Gareth would surely say ‘No’.

An hour from 12.00 to 1.00, a pub lunch break, and a repeat performance from 2.30 to 3.30 may not have had the Castle crowds rocking around the Christmas tree, but it did tap their generosity to the extent of raising £200.45 for Sobell House.

So well done to everyone who turned out, but especially to @Ox_Bex who organised it all, and a special ‘thank-you’ to the students from Stanford University who have been here this term and who came along to sing as part of our choir.