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PETE'S TOUR JOURNAL PART ONE - 2pm Sunday 13 March, Minehead UK All my bags were packed, I had said goodbye to everyone I could think of, all that was left was for me to leave Minehead, and get back to home in Aylesbury ASAP to get as much sleep as possible before catching my plane to Europe. Why was I in Minehead in the first place? Well this weekend just happened to be the busiest 3 days of my year- the infamous Marillion worldwide convention, but that's another story for another day. This did however leave me somewhat compromised for the start of the 8 day Spock's Beard tour (a band I know well and admire immensely) that Kino had kindly been invited to guest on. As I was already playing with Marillion on Sunday 13th, John M & John B would play an acoustic set at De Fade Zaandan, and Bob Dalton and me would fly in for Hamburg the following day. I started the car and edged out of my parking space. A tricky manoeuvre, as there were big rocks all around to stop people driving on the grass. As I passed the other chalets my mum and sister came out to wave goodbye and wish me luck. They had travelled down to see the 3 shows. Mum was concerned about me being too tired to drive safely. I guess you're never too old for them to stop worrying about you. A few minutes later I was heading for the motorway. Normally in my part of the country this is quite a simple task and is usually a few miles dual or good single laned road. Not so in Devon I'm afraid. I meandered over hills and passed little villages that said "Thank you for driving safely through our village". But with hairpin bends and steep inclines there was clearly little choice. This seemed to go on forever and I did wonder if I was going back on myself at one point. I got excited when I saw the signs for the motorway only to have that harshly taken away from me by the diversion sign that followed it round the next bend. I then completely lost my bearings and prayed that the next diversion sign hadn't been removed by some joker. It was there at the side of the road merely 20 miles or so ahead. Eventually navigating my way through Taunton, I hit the M5 and settled down for the long haul that would take me via the M4 past Bristol, Swindon and up the A34 to Oxford, Thame and 150 miles or so later, home. I had phoned Fiona and the boys just before leaving as they were also driving the same route some couple of hours or so ahead of me. I finally arrived home at 4pm and crawled in to bed. 7am is the time that Callum has to get up for school, so that was when the alarm was set. I heard it go, opened my eyes and went back to sleep for a bit. Luke and Fiona got up at 7.30am and again I went back to sleep a bit longer. At 8.30am I said goodbye to them both as I wouldn't be seeing them for 9 days. Then Fiona left for work and I decided to get up and pack my bags for the trip. I had a taxi booked for 11am for a flight at 2pm from London Heathrow. Packing was fairly simple as I had sent a suitcase over the water with the rest of the equipment so it was only my carry-on luggage and some stage clothes I'd kept behind in case I wanted them at the Marillion weekend. All done, I got up and waited for my taxi. He arrived early, which I took to be a good sign, and the drive to Heathrow was clear and relatively uneventful. I found out my driver had worked in the armed forces on BFBS TV and Radio out in Malta, Gibraltar and the Falklands which was all very interesting and kept me from falling asleep. At Heathrow, I managed to navigate my way through check-in, security and passport control without too much difficulty but much delay, and was sat in the departure lounge with about an hour or so to wait for my flight and I was desperately tired at this point, forcing myself to stay awake. "Don't fall asleep, you'll miss the plane, wait till you're on board, then sleep". I got up for a walk and a coffee, then sat down again with my computer and listened to some Kino to remember the music I would be playing that evening, and sat staring at the screen ahead for details of my flight. At last Gate 14 came up and I had a very long walk to possibly the furthest point they could find to put a gate. I got in and we started to move immediately. I was mentally preparing myself for a nice nap until the queue stopped at the top of a ramp. We waited there for about 15 mins for the next bus. How silly of me to think we would just simply stroll on to the plane to take our seats. No we had the next bus and judging by the amount of people in front of me it would be full. I guessed correctly although by some stroke of luck I managed to get a seat while we drove round the perimeter of the airport for a while. Finally on the plane I sat down and fell asleep for the entire flight to Hamburg.
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