the moral of this story is to get some instrument training! When I was doing training for my IR (FAA) one thing will always stick in my mind....the instructor told me to fly the aircraft as normal with my eyes shut....45 second later look out... until I opened my eyes everything FELT normal but when I opened my eyes I saw we were heading earthward in a very step left turn, very fast...So shutting your eyes is effectively like flying into cloud and not being able to interpret the instruments. Don't rely on 'staying out of the mist' as one day it may come back and bite.