Suzanne Wilson, Amanda Morrison, Micaela Haslam, Heather Cairncross
Andrew Busher, Gerard O'Beirne

"This was the final concert of the tour for the whole team. Only those involved in Music for 18 and Music for Mallets would be heading off to Vilnius tomorrow. The other players, and our 2 tenors, would be heading home. I think Gerry was very much looking forward to going home at this stage as he was still feeling extremely fragile.

To get to Grenoble, most of us had a long coach ride to Paris (a couple of the players went by train as they were terrified of catching the dreaded lurgie on the bus of doom), then we took a train (first class - hurrah!) down to Grenoble. The Park Hotel, Grenoble was, unfortunately, a bit of a way out of the centre but it was walkable. Some of the rooms were lovely and some were absolutely hideous! I started in one of the latter (also right next to the lift - no thanks!), and moved to something not quite lovely but considerably better.

The first evening was a minor disaster in that we didn't want to go far to find a restaurant (with invalids in tow), but there was nothing nearby. We walked and walked for about 20 minutes and ended up in an OK place with very average food and a (very pleasant) waitress who was painfully slow. If only we'd known that our hotel restaurant was absolutely fantastic, we need not have gone anywhere!

Mandy out shopping

The following day, Mandy and I were the only ones feeling fit enough to brave the shops. We found a wonderful jewellery shop; semi-precious stones in silver, made to measure. We both spent far too much money, then went and found the most delicious hot chocolate of the tour (and we'd tried a few!). I can't remember the name of the place, but it was a little cake shop for "ladies who lunch". The hot chocolate was to die for! It was lovely just to have some time for a wander - and not to be on that bus anymore. The air was lovely and fresh, and it was uplifting to be surrounded by glorious blue skies and mountains.

MC2 is a huge venue with several halls. Fortunately nobody got lost backstage.

Clangers and bangers - from left to right, Nurit (pno), Russ (perc), Ed (pno), Thad (perc), Phil (pno)

The concert was successfully uneventful, and we all headed back to the hotel for a delicious meal, much merry-making and spontaneous speech-giving."

Micaela