It's time to catch our breath again after another fantastic few days.  The Royal Albert Hall is a wonderful building and there's always a special atmosphere when Michael performs there.  This time was no exception and the Saturday night concert which was filmed for the DVD was perfection itself.  This is going to be a brilliant DVD and I can't wait for it's release on 23 November.

After a few days at home we headed off to Nottingham on Monday morning.  We stopped at a Little Chef for brunch and came across one of the refurbished ones with the Heston Blumenthal inspired menu.  The restaurant was bright and clean and I opted for the sausage and mash and Maureen had the scampi.  I have to say it was very tasty.

We stayed at a Travelodge on the M1 on Monday night - cheap and not so cheerful, this one was badly in need of some redecoration but as we weren't going to spend much time in it, and it had only cost us £19 per room we couldn't complain too much.  Nottingham was, as always, brilliant, we caught up with some people that we hadn't seen for years - some of whom we've known since Aspects days and they haven't changed a bit!

Tuesday morning we had a short, one hour's drive to Sheffield, so decided to go via Meadowhall shopping centre where we were very restrained and only bought a handbag (Gill) and jacket (Maureen).  We were booked into Jury's Inn in Sheffield which has only been opened for a few months and we can highly recommend it.  Nice and clean, comfortable beds and the most amazing ice machine we've come across so far this tour.  You could have just ice, ice mixed with water, or just water by pressing different buttons.  This one got the thumbs up and when I win the lottery I'm having one installed at home!

Michael seemed much more relaxed when we arrived at Sheffield and this came through during the concert - I think that now the DVD has been filmed he is relaxing an enjoying the tour.  As Michael said, the northern audiences are brilliant and there was a great atmosphere right from the beginning.

I'm loving this tour, the addition of the 5 other performers has added a whole new dimension and it's great to see Ben and Adrian enjoying themselves on stage with Michael.

We headed home for another few days yesterday, via Boundary Mill on the A1, which I nearly missed as there used to be a roundabout there - no more - the road goes straight through now - a vast improvement on the old traffic jams we used to get stuck in there.  We were a little less restrained this time - sorry that should be "I" was a little less restrained and bought some jeans, a jumper and a black and white top.

As usual there was a load of emails and letters for us when we got home so I'd better go and do some proper work now.