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STOP PRESS!! Have you tried the YouTube Playlist featuring all of my compositions for the TRANSFORMATES? Here it is:

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After a very hectic week in London at Mission Control with the ‘RiskBusters’ I was certainly ready to escape to the Alps on Friday evening. This was my first weekend excursion to the European mountains since the end of last October and as I stepped onto the flight it felt like I was going home. I was just about to put my bag into the overhead luggage compartment when a friendly voice from behind greeted me with:  ‘Back from South Africa then – did you have a good time?’ It was one of the more hardy commuters between London and the Alps: one that didn’t escape to the south at the first sight of snow. This friendly greeting only served to reinforce my feeling of homecoming.

The welcome continued after I landed and I went to pick up my hire car – Ah Mr Doogelbuy (one of the name spellings you will not find in my ‘Duggleby’ history page), I have something special for you. The lady is always so nice that I just can’t bring myself to tell her that I actually prefer the small cheap cars….. I am trying to minimise fuel consumption!

So within minutes of stepping off the plane I had picked up my ‘Panzer’ from the VIP parking area and was heading down the Autobahn trying to just gently ‘caress’ the gas pedal. After about 40 minutes, in the direction of Salzburg, I was in sight of the mountains. Suddenly a shooting star shot over the Autobahn in front of me! If there was any sadness left after my departure from Sunset Rocks last week the European gods were working hard to make it evaporate.

20 minutes later I found myself trying to manoeuvre the Panzer into my modestly sized garage. Fortunately the inbuilt parking sensors screamed at me as soon as I got too close to the walls. My neighbours had installed solar powered garden lights along the path to my front door. The path follows a mountain stream which runs by the side of the house. Somehow the pretty fairy lights and the sound of the water cascading over the waterfall just added to the magical atmosphere. The sky was free of any clouds allowing me to clearly see a carpet of stars twinkling above. Before long I had settled into my bed with the curtains wide open so I could fall asleep gazing at the stars.

Dawn broke much earlier than in the UK so after a very short lie-in I was quickly up and inspecting the apartment to see what had changed since I left. Everything was perfect: all the IT systems sprang into action (and more importantly the fridge and the kettle!). Before long I was listening to BBC radio via the i-Player and my screen players were re-playing my various photo collections. I may be something of an international gypsy but I do like to keep in touch with the UK music scene (and the British humour). At lunch time my younger son who lives nearby came over to pick up the socks which Daddy had purchased over in England. Both children prefer to get their socks and undies from a well known UK store. We enjoyed lunch in the garden of our ‘regular’ restaurant which overlooks the mountains. Although it was the middle of March the temperature was an incredible 20C (and certainly much warmer in the direct sunlight).

The Chef came out to greet us with the almost obligatory ‘nice tan!’. He served up his latest speciality ‘Baeren Salat’ and we chatted about the weather. A few little personal niceties can make lunch so memorable! One of the simple reminders why, despite the challenges, I rush from work each Friday evening and fly half way across Europe.

Another exciting episode soon….