It's nice having friends. It's nice when they're new friends and you still have plenty of stuff to find out about them. It's even nicer when one of the things they've never shared with you before is the picturesque town in which they were brought up.

And so it was that I headed 90 minutes away from my home to see a small town near Bath where a friend of mine had invited me to see a play. There was an opportunity to meet the folks, who have a fair working knowledge of musical theatre, proved by the fact that "mum" sang a line from South Pacific almost absent mindedly over dinner, when a comment at the table came close to a lyric in the show, and a quick burst of West Side Story in the living room, caused "dad" to continue the song, whistling from across the house. I put the inverted commas around their two names since they're not my parents, though they were the parents of the family in that situation.

Then we were off to see the play which was directed by the master of the house. The play was very well staged and directed, with some outstanding individual performances, and some scenes that were truly dramatic. Despite having been put together on a small budget, the show looked and felt very very professional and had so many brilliant staging devices that the school hall around us disappeared, leaving only the world of the show.

I drove home impressed. It had been a good day in good company, with a lovely walking tour, closed by a very creditable tribute to the talent around me.