Well it's been a while since I've had the chance to put anything on here. Blame hotels with no internet, hectic travel schedules and probably a little laziness on my part. Anyhow, I find myself with 4 hours to spare in Chicago O'Hare airport, so here we are. Our flight to Saginaw, for which I got up at FIVE THIRTY THIS MORNING, was unable to land at Saginaw airport due to fog, so we had to fly back to Chicago and arrived back at the same gate from which we left an hour earlier. Grrrrrrr. We're on the 1.00 flight now, but at least that means we'll arrive in time for the 4pm concert. Just.

So far on this trip we've done concerts in Princeton, Storrs, Oberlin and Glen Elyn. It's been good, musically speaking. I think we're performing pretty well together, and the audiences have seemed to enjoy the concerts, which is always a good sign. I met up with Lindsay, an old friend of Stephanie's who has become a friend of mine, in Princeton. She lives there, and is also a singer. It was great to be shown around the town with a local; I managed to visit a revolutionary war battlefield, spotted Einstein's house, and saw the Washington Monument. Princeton University is as nice as you'd expect, all stone courtyards and reeking of learning!

The worst bit about Princeton was actually the hotel - so I'd advise you never to stay in the Nassau Inn! It was one of those old hotels that seems to think that because it's been around for a while, it has a license to charge stupidly high prices for the rooms, give its customers poor service and provide small rooms with shabby bathrooms. And if there's one thing I can't stand in a hotel, it's a shabby bathroom! Still, we had a good time there all told, and a good meeting with our agent, who wants us to work more with orchestras in the US. All sounds quite exciting, but there are hurdles to be got over before anything works out....

Not much to tell about Storrs; it was cold, and we got to drive around in a bit Cadillac Escalade, which was like driving a living room on wheels and smelt like a hundred head of cattle had been culled to provide the leather interior! For its size, it had a pretty pathetic horn, but apart from that I felt like the king of the road.

Oberlin was wonderful, though, largely because Stephanie surprised me by driving up from Richmond with Scott. I have to admit that I didn't react perfectly at first - I am one of those people who likes to know exactly what is happening in my life, and where people are at all times, especially Stephanie! That's probably the Englishman in me. Anyhow, when she turned up I just didn't quite know what to do at first; I was so shocked I just sat there with my mouth open - it was quite funny. Gradually though I realised how wonderful it was that she had thought to surprise me; I was really missing her and it meant so much to me that she had made the effort to drive 5 hours or so to surprise me. I really appreciated Scott coming with her, too - he's a real friend! We had a great evening after the concert, played some cards, watched tv and chatted, and then next morning we had to part again - but it's really given me a boost during this busy patch. We have 7 concerts in 7 days in 6 states, so it's a bit much right now! But I love it, so I'll not complain any more.

Well, that's pretty much it. Lots of narrative I'm afraid, but I did want to say how much it meant that Steph surprised me; I just need to learn to react better when caught unawares!