FINAL DAYS IN SEATTLE

Our great friends, Pat and Kate, greeted us like long lost cousins. They
have a beautiful house on the north side of the city, and we always stay
with them when in Seattle. Actually Seattle is my favourite city - and not
because it rains a lot - but because there's an atmosphere there, a kind of
live and let live feeling to the place. I've always had a lovely time
there. We were tired that night so we stayed in and watched movies - a real
treat. The next day was my birthday and also the last concert. It was
being held in a lovely little music shop called Dusty Strings in Fremont -
www.dustystrings.com. What a lovely idea, to have a concert surrounded by
instruments, harps, guitars and all other sorts of instruments. It was a
beautiful night - and the audience were knowledgable and appreciative.
Thanks to Molly for having me on her 'wish list'. That night I met some
wonderful people, as well as some old friends - including Rose who gave me a
silver bracelet for my birthday. We finished the night across the road at a
pub where we had dinner and wine and good chats with new friends.

We had arranged to stay in Seattle - just to recover really. And we were
helped in our recovery by staying with Kate and Pat, who left us to our own
devices during the day, and dined us in style at night. With every
intention of doing some sight seeing (I still haven't been up the Needle) -
we ended up just lazing about all day for 2 days - and finally ventured out
on the last day to do a little shopping - for my daughter of course!

We set off on the last day, said our goodbyes, and travelled the gruelling
trip home, Seattle, DC, London and finally arriving home to Dublin. What a
tour! We were exhausted! But happy to have made the effort to go the
United States - so many Europeans will not make the effort as it's difficult
to get work-visas, the dollar is very low and it's just much harder work
than travelling throughout Europe. But as long as I have an audience in the
United States, I'll make the effort.

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Cupertino

We had a great night in Cupertino. The day started with a lovely lie-in, as
we didn't have far to travel. Gloria offered to take me for a 'birthday
meal' before Cupertino - it was a really fantastic meal - Graham and Gloria
celebrated my birthday by drinking Champagne - of course I coudln't drink
any, owing to my strict non-alcohol rule before a concert - I only ever
broke it once - but that was in Shetland Island where everybody has whisky
for breakfast. Anyway - off we went to Michael's house for the workshop -
which was very enjoyable - and then the house concert. Unfortunately we
were not aware that Michael had laid on food for us, and we were so full
afer the meal - his mother is from Rome in Italy, and between them they had
incredible, real Italian food - After the concert, I managed to taste loads
of bits and pieces, and ended up being full to the gills - so much for
trying to lose weight - eating at night is my downfall - and I'm always
really full after a giig. That concert was lovely, a smart audience who
were delighted at us for coming all the way from Ireland. It's good to be
appreciated!

Next morning - we dropped the car back to San Francisco and headed north to
Seattle.

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