another long post disappears into the ether

It's the pits, isn't it? I've taken to composing mine as emails & cutting & pasting the text accordingly. A bit of a faff, but I've lost too much good stuff that way.

Meanwhile, might I take this opportunity to amend one of my above sentences thus:

In particular, there's our very own Steamer Hotel in Fleetwood - cordial joviality, good pints, and a good maritime air; we sing in a room named after the hapless commander of the PS Liela who was pulled into her paddle wheels as she sank on her maiden voyage off Liverpool Bay during the American Civil War.

That's better, although WAVs unions really did put a whole different slant on things as I remember it. Innate & timely genius I calls it, WAV - these things will out after all, so fuck the detractors who are only jealous because they haven't got the balls to do it themselves.