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.

Just going back to Crumb for a minute. Jacky just reminded me that on 13th Sept. 1993 (my b'day) we were playing 'Death and the Maiden' // Black Angels in Sydney (that's a prog we played often; indeed we recorded it). Just before the concert she had received a phone call to say that my dad had died. Thankfully, she didn't tell me till afterwards. How on earth did I manage to forget that little event when cataloguing the BA stories???

Much as I like Canterbury, do I want to spend the night there, unplanned and potentially in my car (albeit with a view of the glorious cathedral)? I don't think so. The writing was on the wall I suppose. We were making our way gently towards the wonderful Uni of Kent; purveyors of doctorates to the great and good (and not so!). It was a rare moment in this hellish winter that has followed the not too clever summer - the sky was clear and blue, the sun practically warm causing us to peel off one or two of the outer layers; then, there in front of us, a bizarre, post- apocalyptic sight. It was the blackest sheet of cloud you've ever seen which had draped a 'curtain' of sleet/snow/hailstones across the Kentish countryside. Sounds somewhat over-dramatic I know but we were actually scared as the car carried us relentlessly into the unknown. Almost instantly we went from the bright clarity of the drive thus far to an eerie darkness where visibility was down to a few metres. The outside temp. went from +5 to -3 in a matter of seconds.We went from being Toad of Toad Hall to being Dennis Quaid in a scene from 'The Day After Tomorrow'.

The show must go on of course and many brave people battled hard to make the concert a success (Jacky's sister, Janet and her husband Tony who live in C, got in the car and proceeded to slip-slide down their street straight into a taxi that had found itself stranded sideways in the middle of the road. Within seconds another car got in on the act and pirhouetted into them. This car turned out to be carrying 4 people also bound for our concert, so in that moment we lost 6 audience members!!!); we had a lovely time there, as always but then...... The scene that greeted us as we left was frankly comical. there were abandoned vehicles everywhere, just left where they ended up. Taxis were parked up and down the road, refusing to go any further, their charges left to fend for themselves; at one point, a young man came running up the middle of the road waving his arm hysterically shouting," don't try to go any further. You cannot go down there, you don't stand a chance....... !!!!!" It took us half an hour to complete the 3 min winter olympic preview course and get off the campus. Another 20 mins took us to the M2 and a welcome return to sanity. Were we in Whistler or Thomsk ?? No. We were in the 'Garden of England' !!!!

ps No-one was hurt in the making of this blog!

Our residency at the RSAMD is really beginning to take shape now. We just had our most successful trip to date. The students there are starting to understand and love this chamber-music lark. Also managed to fill the hall with Prok 2/Bart 6 on Friday lunchtime which was most heartening. Wed night some of us hit the Wee Curry House (not for the first time!!) hmmmm... excellent. It was -7degrees and snowing so I simply had to have the chilli, coriander, ginger King Prawn dish. Isn't life a ... Next night Me and J went to the cinema and saw The Road. Bloomin' 'eck! Brilliant film but not if you have kids a few hundred miles away. Extremely harrowing. The entire packet of Revels went very quickly.

After our lunchtime on Fri we had a very scary encounter with a somewhat deranged and horribly aggressive taxi-driver but still managed to make the 2.30 train to Kendal where we played that night (Courtney Pine and co were in the next hall/dressing room) at the Brewery Arts Centre. Lovely little place actually and good crowd. We were halfway through the second piece when Jacky's stand began to slowly tilt forward eventually causing her music to fall to the floor. We kept playing for a short time but when it was obvious that no-one from the audience was about to get involved we stopped and Daniel rectified the situation. I suggested to the audience that this had been a clear case of 'brewer's droop' ..... not sure how well that went down but i'm afraid I found it irresistible.

Had a fun Thai meal; then whilst waiting for the cab, bumped into some rather worse-for-wear local lads and lasses clutching bottles of rose. They were complaining that there was nothing for them to do but drink and that because of their appearance everyone was on their case. We suggested that they looked perfectly normal and should have spent at least part of their evening down at a different brewery listening to Beethoven and stuff ...... not sure there'll be much change next Friday though. Nice kids .

Like an idiot I managed to catch the end of Jaws2, Fish Called Wanda and White Mischief before collapsing at some unearthly hour. Got the first train home and found ourselves next to two trainspotters on their way to Royston. They had this extraordinary file full of mind-boggling diagrams of the national grid etc. At one point they nearly knocked each other out in a desperate attempt to be the first to see a particular signal-box that we were about to pass...... Now I love trains and all but ..... mind you, if they were to attend one of our rehearsals they might well think the same of me (just different anoraks really!!).

Had such fun doing In Tune the other day. Sean is just amazing and since they've gone up-market studio-wise it's become an even more pleasurable experience (Jacky now has her own podium instead of the old coffee table of yesteryear!!). Got so many comments about the Tanaka; that piece really gets to people which is nice.

Went back to Kings Place to take part in a celebration of Maxwell-Davies' music. What a hall that is; surely the best acoustic in London. The whole building is fantastic of course. The brain child of the inspired Peter Millican. Lovely to catch up with Peter, Max and Colin..... get some new swan-recipes!!!

Did our third and final concert as part of the excellent 'Migrations' series in Bristol. The audience at St Georges is so impressive. We almost filled the place for quite an uncompromising prog. We had a great evening except that I pulled my A string off the instrument getting a tiny bit carried away during the cello cadenza of Bartok 6 ... all Jacky's fault of course for playing like that!!

Speaking of Jacky. She had a bit of a brain-wave there because there is always the dilemma after those shows.. does one go to a restaurant or head for home!? Anyway, inspired by our experience in Eindhoven last month she ordered a take away to be delivered to St G for after the concert. I can tell we're going to be doing more of that from now on.

In Naples we stayed in the King's former hunting lodge (the proprieter was a charming chap with a very impressive collection of ....... hand-grenades!) and played in his summer palace (figured out why he only went there in the summer..... bloomin' freezin'!!)

Someone told Ian after the concert that Portici (that's where we played) is the third most densely populated place on Earth. Hard to believe but there were a lot of people at our gig many of whom chatted their way through the whole thing in old Italian style. 'Tis somewhat annoying that, having travelled all that way and it's op59/1!!! It's not that they're not enjoying it (we had to do encores) it's just their way. Very delicious sea-bass dinner in front of the Milan derby. Limoncelli on the house..... brill.

Now then. Off to Potton Hall in Suffolk for three days to make our first cd with Daniel. Really excited. It's pretty perfect there; miles from anywhere. Lovely big barn with wonderful acoustic and the very excellent Jeremy Hayes and Patrick Allen to guide us. Recording is tough; very long days of relentless pressure. Still, Helen's mum's soups, the deer outside the window and the Manchester derby got us through it........ ok, and a little bit of Adnams !