Shires Shopping Centre, Leicester

Leicester isn't a place I ever go to. Not often anyway. Only really if I have a reason to go there - a meeting, appointment, wedding.

I'd been invited to speak to a group of MBA students at De Montfort University and had misjudged the traffic. So I found myself arriving early in Leicester, with time on my hands and a credit card in my pocket. That old dangerous combination.

I wandered around town for a while, got some coffee, generally mooching not buying. While drinking my coffee I read an interview between Mark Gatiss and a 'new' singer/songwriter about whom Gatiss was waxing lyrical, and for whom Gatiss had said he would leave his boyfriend and dog behind, gladly.

The singer/songwriter was a young blade from NYC via Montreal. A certain Mr Rufus Wainwright.

I decided that I'd nip over to HMV and see if they had the album they'd talked about in the interview.

I bought said album - 'Want One' - and carried on looking at shops. A couple of shirts and a pair of nikes (which I still own and love, despite their decrepit state) later, I went back to the car and set offf for the University.

Before leaving the car park, I remembered I had that new CD to listen to. I put it in the CD player and turned it up....The first track was all I needed. I was sold....

"....Why am I always on a plane or a fast train?
Oh what a world my parents gave me,
Always travelling, but not in love......"

hmm.