Clare Teal: Why I could do with a rocket man in M40 crawl to see Elton

1. Get to Birmingham for a brilliant meeting with Sharon Canavar director of The Harrogate International Festival – watch this space chaps! 2. Record Sunday's radio shows. 3. Have picture taken with the Bruce Forsyth cardboard cut-out in the foyer of BBC Birmingham.

All we had to do now was get to London to see Elton John and Leon Russell kick off Radio 2's Electric Proms at the Roundhouse in Camden. By 6pm we were stuck in a traffic jam on the M40. All plans of checking into the hotel and having a freshen up were rapidly going out of the misty window. I won't bore you with the details, or Muddy's entertaining but unprintable comments on the state of British roads, but having abandoned the car somewhere near the hotel we jumped into a cab and finally reached the venue at 8.10pm.

It was an amazing concert. Elton John sang and played brilliantly, the band were all world class especially the four backing singers.

Leon Russell, looking a bit like Old Father Time, shot on to the stage in his electric wheelchair before slaying us all with great renditions of some of the classic songs he's written. We left the Roundhouse on a smiley

high and made our way to

the hotel. By now it was midnight, we were tired and the receptionist had no knowledge of our booking whatsoever. For the first

time in history I had forgotten to print out my reservation.

On the verge of tears and with a big wobbly lip I enquired if they had any other rooms. "No madam the hotel is fully booked – only one room remains and that is reserved."

"Are you 100 per cent sure that that is not my room?" "Yes, madam, this room is for Teal!"

The alarm went off at 6am so as to catch the early Eurostar to Brussels, to do some recording for the Reader's Digest, which is still huge in Europe. After a great session, Muddy and I headed into town to do a spot of shopping. Brussels is wonderful for waffles, beer, chips and chocolate but could we find a decent pair of jeans?