France was a corker

Nationality: English

Occupation: chief executive of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra

Distinguishing traits: always travels with his own bath plug

Where in the world have you been?

Italy, Spain, France, Portugal, China, Russia, Australia, Japan, Singapore and Uzbekistan. My work has taken me to Norway, Greece and New York - but just for a day.

What was your first holiday abroad?

My very first holiday abroad was to Macon, in France, on a school exchange when I was 12. What I remember most was that it was my first experience of wine - I was very lucky because the family I stayed with had a vineyard in their garden and they produced all the wine for their own consumption.

Where have you never been but would like to go?

America. I've been to New York for one day, but I would love to see the rest of America. I'd love to see the Far West, New Orleans and the Rockies.

You'd never leave home without . . .

A rubber plug. Bathrooms without plugs - I can't bear them. It's bad enough when there's no water. We had a wonderful trip to St Petersburg, a last-minute, cheap deal. When we arrived, the guide - one of these Russians with a terrifically wicked sense of humour - said: ''You'll be staying in the Otabruskaya Hotel, not one of our best hotels.''

It was a huge place, near the Moscow Station and it had long, long dark corridors with a

20 watt bulb every 200 yards and these rather large babushkas, these old women who sit on each landing, watching who goes into your room. We were lucky, compared to our friends: unlike them, we had a lightbulb in both the bathroom and the bedroom, but we had no hot water and no bath plug, so we had to jam tissue down the plug hole.

The best place you've ever visited was . . .

Beijing. It was the most exotic, most exciting place I've ever seen, totally different from anywhere else. We had 10 days there and we went to the Forbidden City, the Great Wall, the Summer Palace and temples.

And the worst place?

Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan, was pretty ghastly

- a concrete town in the middle of nowhere.

Who would you most like to be sitting beside on a long-haul flight?

Donald Dewar. I'd like to talk to him about the importance of music in Scotland. That would be a very useful 24 hours.

Who would you least like to be sitting beside on a long-haul flight?

I can't answer this - I can't think of anyone. I'll take

my chances.

What would you read on the beach?

Something frivolous and totally escapist.

What was the best/most memorable meal you've had on holiday?

We had a fantastic meal last Easter at The Brussaco Palace Hotel which is just north of Lisbon in Portugal.

It was built as a royal palace but when the royal family

was deposed at the turn of

the century, it was turned

into a hotel. It's a wonderful place in the middle of a huge wooded parkland.

They make their own wine and we happened to be there on my partner's birthday.

You open the wine list and

it's got house reds and

whites going back every

year for the past 40 years. Stephen was born in 1962, and we managed to find a 1962 bottle of house red which was utterly delicious.

The meal itself consisted of gazpacho, beautifully cooked veal and lovely sweets.

How do you cope with

jet lag?

Just by immediately switching to the time in the country I'm in.

What is your favourite item(s) that you have bought on holiday?

A framed oil painting of a seascape we bought from a street artist in St Petersburg. When we went to get on the plane home, the stewardess said that we couldn't bring the painting on the plane because it was too big. But we didn't

want to put it in the hold because it was only wrapped up in brown paper.

Then some bright spark in the third row said: ''Why

don't you take the frame off and roll it up?'' So we went down to the tarmac and a

very kind Russian engineer arrived with a huge pair of pliers and we started to take the frame apart.

We got about two nails off, when the pilot leaned out of his cockpit and said: ''For goodness sake, bring it up in here and I'll put it in the cockpit. I want to get this plane off the ground.'' A year later at the Edinburgh Festival, when I was working at the Queen's Hall, this man from the audience came up to me and said: ''I've often wondered what happened to that painting.''

He'd been on the flight and recognised me.

Any essential duty-free purchases?

A bottle of gin.