It was quite late, yesterday arvo, when Steve, my neighbour from over the back fence, called out to me. I'd been aware that he'd been using lots of 'toys' in his back yard nearly all day....mower, whipper-snipper, chain saw. He apologised for the fact that his yard had been invading mine, in the guise of passionfruit vine, alamanda and some other thriving vine or creeper. I am ashamed and embarrassed to say I hadn't even noticed that they had taken possession of the back fence and the roofs of my pergola and shed!! So, it goes without saying that I also hadn't noticed that he had removed this jungle whilst playing with said power toys!

After he'd basked for a while in the glow of my grateful thanks and mutterings about the great job he'd done, he said something along the lines of " Oh, I love your eclectic taste in music".

Now, I proudly admit I've always had a fiercesome and well-deserved reputation for "sharing' my music with anyone living within a two kilometre radius of my place. But I don't really know Steve all that well and, frankly, I wondered if he was having a go at me! That got me thinking as to what I'd just been listening to.Then I realised.....it was my Most Best Favourite piece of music, OF ALL TIME and FOREVER. Something I've listened to, heard and seen in performance loads of times, but which still completely reduces me to a sobbing, heaving wreck with an breaking heart on each and every occasion. Perhaps it would also be close to the top of most people's most loathed music, and no doubt has caused many of my neighbours over the years to slam shut all doors and windows, and insert industrial-strength ear-plugs.

It's the Liebastood sung by Isolde in the final minutes of Richard Wagner's opera, "Tristan und Isolde". As she is dying, she sings over the body of her dead lover, Tristan.( That's the loving couple in healthier times in the title picture.) Yes, yes, I know, not everyone's musical cup of tea. But it is mine.

So, it then got me to wondering what is your special piece of music or song, that always has an extraordinary effect on you, that provokes that "tingle factor" each time you hear it?