First off, apologies to Stephen for my posting in the wrong place.
The good news is my catch up is up and running again!
I'm inclined not to complain formally as in fairness VM service is usually pretty good for me. Sometimes you just gots to forgive the odd blip. 'Course, if the service goes down again I will go berserk immediately
Thanks all for your comments and offers of help.
This is still the best forum on the web. (
note for readers: a little bit of sucking up goes a long way 
)