It turns out that our chimneys had been blocked by rubble from the renewal of our roof. The gas fires' fumes were accumulating in the house and we were all suffering carbon monoxide poisoning.
Many of the symptoms resemble that of anxiety.
I was given water tablets and tranquillisers. The combination of the gassing and my prescription was catastrophic. (I do have a tendency to be a tad highly strung too)
It was during that time that I started working with a guy called Ron Gardner. We never bothered giving ourselves a name. Gigs were few and far between. However it was enjoyable. It was the first time that somebody else had given my songwriting a whole load of time and consideration. Our repertoire was almost exclusively mine. I was still unwell and that eventually put paid to that partnership.
Sandy Stanage, a fabulous guitar player, was the next guy to pay any attention to my work. His instrumental prowess added much to my otherwise simple arrangements.
We wrote a few songs together. Pretty good ones to my way of thinking. I still use them regularly.
The Star folk club was a regular Thursday haunt and one night a Marilyn Middleton Pollock came in and took the place by storm. She was incredible. I bit the bullet and asked if she would be willing to do some work with us. She agreed.
The problem was that she was full time and really needed to earn more than our little band could command. Different needs and three strong egos soon had us acrimoniously split.
On a personal level this group taught me much in both music and life.
We did put an album together (Wishing for Friday) which was never released. It contained mostly my songs and a couple of originals from the others.
Of course, non release left me a bundle of unused songs. I released them on a solo album. Musically that takes my life into the albums pages.
Incidentally, as Paul Simon said in "Allergies"- "You get better but you never get well". I totally understand that line. That's how it's been for me. Life has been good so far though.
For a run down of achievements , to date, see scraps.
Meanwhile, jumping 10 years, to 6th November 1999.
At the moment, I'm sitting in Schipol airport awaiting boarding of the delayed Bremen plane, with my laptop. I'm on a sojourn which will probably change my life, totally.
Watch this space.

On the way back from choosing my new abode. Yes, I'm moving on.
I'm moving to a beautiful countryside residence outside Bremen. Feeling very happy.

Not moving much at the moment. Stuck in Schiphol again. Glasgow plane was cancelled last night and delayed two hours today. Now, we've just been told that we're flying to Edinburgh instead. They'll get us to Glasgow by bus.

To be continued eventually. 8 Years to catch up on.