We played in Krakow and Bytom in 2004 but I haven't made it to Warsaw yet. I'm looking forward to it!

Krakow was all very hip and such but Bytom was painfully grey and dirty - I'm not sure exactly what was in the air there but after a few hours it was hurting my throat. Great audience for the concert though - full hall, everyone clapping like mad - then back out into the dark streets where the only clean things were the Coke and Nescafé billboards.

Thanks for your kind wishes, Stanley.

  Oh, George, you've brought further joy to my heart.

I didn't travel to N.Y. to see the original London cast - chance would have been a fine thing the mid 50s -but I still have my programme for the same cast at the charming St James's Theatre, which was sited off The Haymarket.

Indeed, I was reminiscing about this production with an old school friend, only a few weeks ago, and he reminded me that the box office assistant invited us to go down to the auditorium to inspect one of the seats, on offer, as the view was slightly impeded by a pillar.  Olde world courtesy, eh?

The film version of Separate Tables" was a botched job. and only two of the original cast were used.   But Wendy Hiller made it worthwhile as the lonely proprietrix.      She and the Portman character (the M.P. not the bogus major) couldn't live together but couldn't be apart.     Back to where we started?    

Last place I've eaten something that seriously disagreed with me would be where, do you think?

 Thank you so much, pw.    As I suspected, the wretched edifice is still there, and 'even with the light behind it'  it remains gross and hideous.   And I'm sure that the lifts will still be jerky, too, without the charm of, say, the unreliable lifts in "Genevieve".   I'm glad to know that the passing of time and social circumstances have given the people a renewed energy as my memory is of a downtrodden populace, more sad than sullen.   And, yes, the sheer brutality of the architecture must be among the worst in Europe. 

A few months after I left Warsaw, I visited Prague - this was 1986 - and even with the prevailing austerity, the people were spirited and lifted two fingers to the system.    The only setback arose when I told a Russian bureaucrat that I was also seeking recordings made by Jarmilla Novotna!   She had been airbrushed out of history but his eyes told me another story. I wonder whether this neglect has now been redressed.

I do feel for you, Ruth. I had the same loo experience once (only luckily I had two loos, so I suppose it doesn't count really) and remember thinking when all was fixed that happiness was definitely a working loo.

Good luck with this one.

To be fair, he didn't actually say "I will not be able to come on Monday if my wife goes into labour".

I enquired whether he served my neighbourhood and he said he was trying to keep things very local at present as his wife is 8.5 months pregnant.  Once we had established this, he then suggested Monday.

So I believe him.

For some reason that really reminds me of Judith Weir, Mary. (I can imagine her saying it!)

How would he know it was you though?

I'm sorry about your son. He sounds a lot like me, actually. I'm hopeless at knowing when I'm free to meet people, unless they happen to call me on the day and arrange something for the same evening. Actually, even then I often fail to make it if it's for an early evening coffee. The best way is to phone me around 4pm and ask if I'm free for dinner. That seems to be the only reliable method.

I suspect it's a youth v. age thing, t-i-n. I like to know where I am and be organised in advance. He's more spontaneous, to the point of being a thorough nuisance sometimes. Since visiting him involves 200 miles on a train, phoning him at four o'clock to arrange dinner might be a bit difficult.