Clare Teal: A drop of the firewater and an encounter with Boy George

Day 2 on the big brother bus. We all set off from Teal Towers bound for St Andrews 444 miles away. The boys left first, Muddy and I had a quick flick round with a Hoover and made sure "our hero" had enough food to last the week. Six and a half hours later we arrived at the hotel in time for an Irn-Brew sorbet and an hour before the rhythm section (not uncommon for singers). The boys were wide eyed in disbelief and accused Muddy of driving at breakneck speeds. Mud and I only stopped for diesel and a wee. "So did we" they retorted. On closer interrogation it was actually two wees, petrol and a sit down burger!

Bass player Simon doesn't drink, and Muddy was yet to be converted but MD Grant (the Australian), drummer Benny (the one what grows his own) and myself are big fans of the firewater and were thrilled to discover that the hotel had its own whisky club, unfortunately the night porter wasn't a member. A grumpier man it would be hard to find. The last thing he wanted was noisy excitable musicians cluttering up his bar in the dead of night (11pm).

"Our hero" had bought me Jim Murray's whisky bible for Christmas and ever since I have been diligently ticking off as many entries as I can. Now, whether I will get through all 3,500 before next year's bible comes out remains to be seen.

Sorry to digress, but a very unusual occurrence has just happened. As usual I write this column in the car on the way to wherever. Today while filling up at Michael Wood services, we spotted young Michael Gorman who some of you will remember worked with us a few years back – a very talented pianist and cook. He and Lizzie Dean – a marvellous singer I worked with in Paris with Pee Wee Ellis – were on a tour bus with none other than BOY GEORGE! We all had a natter by the pumps. He was super nice and had seen me on the telly with Titchmarsh – I've arrived.