Any belated greetings gratefully received

Ruth - glad to see you're feeling slightly less frazzled a.t.m. Sorry to hear about the throat - 'spect you'll throw it off soon enough.

We've just got back from our 550 mile triangular road trip, London-Bristol-Liverpool-London. Exhausting but both interesting and valuable. These uni visits definitely helped sort out a few things in our minds (i.e. us as parents and more importantly, Lauren's). I knew Bristol was really nice and wasn't disappointed. There was a course there that is just about *perfect* as a 'plan B' so that was worthwhile. Liverpool was really great, the people were *so* friendly and the whole atmosphere of the city was really 'buzzing'. I think Lauren was really taken with the place both in terms of the course AND the place itself.

Looks like me and Ruth are the only contributors right now - come on chaps, we can't do it all on our own. Anyway, this old bloke is off to bed, it's way past my bedtime, there's only so much of the M6 that one person can take in 2 days )-;