As far as I know, carpiper isn’t officially a word although it has a certain mellifluity (possibly also not an entirely official construction) that would make me support any campaign to introduce it. It came to mind when I was parking up to go to my friend Reg’s funeral yesterday. We were far enough out of built up areas that the parking restrictions weren’t too tight and, in the car in front, a man was practising his bagpipes.

I’d assumed the carpiping was a way of practising without annoying his neighbours but I heard the sound of the pipes going down the street later as I sat in the service at SS Mary and John on Cowley Road. It turned out in the end that everything connected up when, as the coffin was lifted, the sound of bagpipes started up at the back of the church to lead out to the graveyard.

Fortunately I don’t think my double bass playing has annoyed the neighbours yet otherwise I’ll need to get a bigger car!