You know how you usually find out that your luggage has been lost when you arrive at your destination...well, here's a first. Ian gets onboard exclaiming that they've lost his bag !! Bloomin' 'eck, more shopping. Great but we're not in Milan or somewhere, we're in Dornbirn ! Anyway, upon arrival, poor old Ian heads off to see what he can conjure up between the ski-shops, farmer's outfitters, liederhosen etc.

Come concert time he actually looked rather fetching though we couldn't decide whether the goggles were a good idea or not.

We were playing this Mend. 6tet for vln, 2vlas,(yes, 2vlas... Ian opted for the dark goggles in the end!) cello, dble bass and piano (Piers Lane and Leon Bosch). So nice for us to sometimes have extras around to chat with provide some much-needed entertainment. The promoter there is an old friend of ours, Roland Jorg, or Van the Man as we call him due to his uncanny resemblance. He's a wonderful guy with a taste for single malt. We were all remarking how much we like the inimitable cosiness provided by those wood-panelled, perfectly sealed eateries you find in Austrian/Swiss villages.

Next day we headed for Sweden (only we 4). We returned to the rather amazing hall in Uppsala which we helped open a couple of years ago. Mats, our agent up north, met us at the airport, set us up with a spanking, top of the range Volvo (or is that Borbo!?) and we were off.

One of the features of this venue is the rather extraordinary and somewhat terrifying escalator which goes from foyer to roof, Thorpe Park style; beautifully lit and enticing. A very charming young man served us dinner in the roof-top green room. The first leg of our '10 Swedish experience was looking good!

Wonder what the chances are, statistically speaking, of turning up to Loughborough Uni. with the wrong music? Anyway, I managed to contribute to it; turning up with Op.95 instead of Shost 8. Now, in days gone by, I'd have been faced with getting in touch with home and getting someone to cut up my precious part of S8, faxing it ..... indeed, not that long ago, I'd have been at the mercy of local music shops, libraries or poor unsuspecting musicians living in the area. These days though; I call upon the services of my 14yr old who scans the music to my laptop whereupon I can simply print it off. All in a matter of minutes!! Amazing!

We had a really fun time with a bunch of local school kids before the show. They were all into music and had been brought along to our reh by a charming and enterprising teacher. If only there was a bit more of that sort of thing. School kids should be given free access to all concerts etc. in my opinion.

March 7th. Had such a lovely time in Hove. Gorgeous spring day with sun splitting the sky, even the Channel was blue and those hugely impressive white houses were at their very best. Gavin Henderson came along; always nice to see him and we played Bridge (local lad) Britten, Ravel in the round. Also fun. Snapped my Astring on last page but battled on. Even managed to do the encore without it. Had a lovely lunch afterwards with family and our old pal Stephen Clarke, who's pretty much family anyway. Then sat on the beach, walked the pier, kids did very terrifying rides while we fed 10ps into those infernal machines. Watched the sun set, had tea and drove home listening to Sophie Hits Seven......hmmm, ace.

Friday 19th March. Some of us did a little session this morning for an album by the well-known Fishermen's Friends ....... what, you hadn't heard of them?? Really lovely bunch of Cornish fishermen who get together post trawl and sing their hearts out. Check out the main man who makes Lee Marvin sound like Britney. (hmmm, on reflection....)

By the way, some of us also played on the latest Peter Gabriel cd 'Scratch my Back'. That's a very beautiful and powerful album. No drums or electrics but our good friend, John Metcalfe's gorgeous arr.s make up for that.

Anyway, later that evening we head off to Bilbao on Vueling. Nice airline but they managed to lose my and Jacky's suitcase leaving us with no alternative but to scoot off to the local Dominguez store at a pace (only for concert dress material of course!). On arrival, found it was the last day of their rather superb sale. Called Daniel and Ian and all but emptied the store, as you will see should you attend a gig anytime soon. Concert hall was right next to the famous Transporter Bridge. There's only one other in the world and guess where it is ........ Middlesbrough !! Yes. True home of the BQ. Jacky and Ian got very emotional. Daniel and I did our best.

Cello seat! - pronounced "jealousy" (of musicians with small instruments)

Last week we took 6 flights in three days to perform in three different countries. Seasoned travelers wouldn't flinch at such an itinerary, but cellists will be seeing the writing on the wall. Reporting to departures with a cello destined for a seat in the cabin almost always causes check-in staff to go into headless chicken mode and start making endless phone calls to mysterious hidden beings within the airport. BA are supreme at this - frequently finding that their system has registered the ticket as unpaid-for and demanding on-the-spot payment regardless of our assertions that we have already paid (through the nose). On Tuesday this led to my not being allowed to fly with them - by the time they were ready to take my second payment for the seat it was too late to go through. With a connecting flight in Rome to Sicilly this made my day rather complicated... luckily Alitalia were able to accommodate me and my bulky friend via Milano (for the price of a whole new ticket of course), but for a while there the concert was in jeopardy, all for a flaw in BA's ticketing system. I do wish they'd sort it out.

(Note to cellists - BA have finally joined the real world and changed their in-seat securing procedure of said instrument to a simple extension seatbelt instead of the previously prescribed 5 kilometers of blue nylon rope which we would have to spend the entire flight unravelling if we were to have a chance of leaving the plane on arrival before it took off again!) (Further note to cellists - Ryanair have finally come clean with their actual attitude to our vulnerable cargo: the official line is "Sod off and find another airline, we can't be bothered with cellos"). ("Oh, but we'll happily sell the seats to your fiddling comrades".)

I do love to fly unencumbered... it happens all too rarely but makes a holiday all the more glorious.

The rest of the trip went smoothly and we enjoyed the diversity of climates and venues from one night to the next - Palermo's grand Opera House to Herisau (Switzerland) and its tiny intimate chamber room to the fabulous acoustic of the Auditorio in Madrid. All three were a treat. The week ended with a long-awaited glimpse of some beautiful spring weather and a trip to the seaside for Brighton's Old Market Trust music society and a tribute to Frank Bridge. Being the weekend, the kids came too and we followed the concert with a ride on the Pier ghost train and munched doughnuts as the sun set over the glittering sea.