Last night I had the unexpected delight of seeing, the wonderful E.S.T. in fantastic form at St Georges. I say unexpected, because the opportunity to go to the gig, only arose in mid afternoon. They really are a brilliant group, who manage to escape the normal confines of a jazz trio, thanks to their innovative approach to sound, which works particularly well in a live environment.

Tomorrow we head off to Bilbao, I’ve stocked up on reading matter for the trip. The 600 plus pages of “The Amazing Adventure of Kavalier & Clay” should take most of my time, just in case I need further stimulus, I’ve got the latest 2 copies of the New Yorker magazine to get through as well. The weather forecast looks pretty good, considering that Bilbao is one of the wettest places in Spain, so we are hopping for lazy spells sitting reading in parks or outside café’s.

The reason for going away at this time of year is that February 4th marks our 17th wedding anniversary. We normally try to go away somewhere to celebrate, even if it’s only a few days in London. Quite often the weather can cause delays (our flight to Nice was cancelled last year!), so I’m pleased to see that the thaw has well and truly kicked in. Tomorrow, we will be driving to local railway station, getting a train to Temple Meads, from their we get a coach to Bristol Airport, from Bilbao airport we hope to get a bus to our hotel. Shame that we can’t fit a boat trip in as well to get most of the forms of transport covered!