A bit disappointed that no-one came up with a brilliant solution to getting the government into Israeli/Palestinian peace talks straight away, pity.......anyway, better take this chance to post my magic moments before the memories of drugs fully take hold....... * I have a couple: When I first heard the orb on BBC world service (john peel I think - 93/94) I thought they were crap. In retrospect with the shortwave signal phasing and station crossover, wish I'd recorded it. Anyway, a year later (95/96): had a pretty bad job, with alot of travel (chromatography/oil and geothermal industry) and I was sent for a few days to work on an oil-rig in central Venezuala. 3 hours drive south from the nearest small town, through the jungle (northern amazon) on a major potholed tar (but mostly dirt) road. Pretty wiped out from jet lag and wanted to get out of there as soon as I could (basic conditions, 99% humidity, cockroaches bigger than your hand, etc), so (alone) worked in the aircondition equipment trailer through the night. One of the crew (a Brit) had a good selection of CD's, so systematically started playing them. Put "Adventures" on and by "AHEG" was subconsciously transported away. Leaving the trailer for a leak, I stood on a ridge at the edge of this great jungle valley looking across at a river, giant cloud plumes and constant lightening (apparently the lightening NEVER stops there - very strange). There I was staring at this weird distant flashing across the jungle night sky, but mentally back in my childhood on a beach in the South Devon countryside (UK), and this was without the aid of anything.........I was hooked. If the absence of chemicals could produce this, what could be achieved with them - I spent the summer attempting to find out............. ............the next 6 months were spent rapidly catching up on the sounds I'd missed (not just orb). A couple of times I took all the engineers (who worked for me) up on the roof of the company building, to demonstrate my latest orb (&erb) discovery..... my days were numbered.......then I heard......Satellite Seranade...... with Attenborough describing the place I had first understood the orb: dirt road, saloon bar, brothel, store, I was just blown away. It was like some crazy sign, (I was pretty screwed up at this point) so quit my job to pursue the true meaning of these signs! My resignation letter read: "if you need me, we are at the Maui Sunset hotel". Starting that summer of "orb love", I have developed a hobby of taking short trips to interesting places, see/learn about the place/meet the locals, then in the late evening listen to the orb, get some mental stimulant and watch the sunset, then the night sky (occasionally with the wife, but she's not such an orb or travel fan), eg: himalayan rooftops, tropical beaches, solar eclipses, inca, meteora, easter island ruins, mountain peaks, celtic burial grounds, etc,.... ........................... that summer I rolled under the wire (seem to do this alot) surrounding a ("closed to the public") Norman castle on the south east coast of England and watched the sunset, listened to plateau and sat with wild rabbits as slug dub came on........ totally freaky, ......with intertwining memories, this hobby keeps me sane in an otherwise crazy world, you should try it!.................. thanks for listening... have a peaceful weekend cheers... bbroo