Bolton is my destination tonight, and a house on a hill filled with about 40 people who love music and Chilli Con Carne. In the front room i stood and told my story, spanning many years of Squeeze in the first half and many years of me in the second. It was so hot in the room and me in a jumper, i refused to take it off as i had not ironed the overnight creases on my shirt. Playing house concerts is something i have stopped doing, it became too uncomfortable for me. I have played a few and this one i have done before, and liked it. In Bolton the welcome was warm. It filled me up with me, a place i have not been recently. I managed to strum my way through the important songs and i just about sang them in tune, even without a rehearsal. A brown envelope in my guitar case and im back in the car for my 3 hour 45 minute drive home to bed and the one who loves me. The M6 was empty, i raced down on auto pilot, the toll road empty too. I know the journey well and almost feel like im flying a plane. Radio on, can of sugar, a sweet tooth and im fine. A full on evening of joy. Here i found my other me, not that bloke from Squeeze or the manager at the side of the stage, but the person who has become stronger for singing his own songs. I do have a strange old life, and i like it all, but most of all i like being back home in Firle. Its a re calibration of self happening without me knowing.

(This is a good time to reflect on your life and to examine your goals and ideals. Your idealism will probably be strong, but instead of blindly assuming that everything will work out ideally, you should make a general review of your plans for the future, working very carefully toward attaining your ideals. Also you put all the disparate parts of your life together into a complete picture, so that you can understand the whole.)