You are all too kind; but I did enjoy myself tremendously, both at Helmsley (the only choruses that beat Herga's Wall Of Sound) and in Stockton. By the time it got to "Angelo" I was high on adrenaline, and let rip - it's fast becoming one of my favourite songs to sing. (Write 100 times: "I must not overexpose 'Angelo'").

Sorry to have missed Mary O'Connor's 80th, Kitty, and doubly sorry to have missed Dave & Anni too. But I should be there for Robb next Monday.

After what was an exhilarating and rewarding long weekend though, the powers that be saw fit to send me a timely reminder: Driving back to my host's for the night, I succumbed to fatigue, despite having recognised it and having stopped for a quick walk around the car 20 mins earlier, and I had a "mini-sleep". My passenger's shouts woke me up to find myself on the opposite side of the road (thankfully no oncoming traffic near us, and none behind); I corrected immediately, but only split seconds from disaster.

No more long-distance late-night driving for this sleepyhead, then. Strictly local billets for anything further than 50 miles from home.

There must be a song in that - "Only a wink away" perhaps?....

But the same powers that be seemed to be satisfied with simply teaching me a lesson so far, and no further penalties were extracted - this time. I owe someone; certainly my passenger, but I can't help feeling there's more due.

All's well that ends well though. Big smile, big sigh and move on.

A big thank you to Ron Angel for inviting me in the first place and to everyone who turned up, not least the many 'catters!