Anotherthing,
No problem and no offence taken (or given, I hope). I see the intricacies of working LTMA, and looking at the issues raised on other threads about VNAV climbs in stepped proceedures and ASEL setting, I suspect ATCOs have their work cut out sometimes, to say the least.
Neither I, nor the skipper I was with had flown a stepped climb SID previously, and the good news is that we did work together to get to the right answer. I really for peace of mind wanted to just validate that answer, and 055166K's reply and question are both valid and well made. Compared to the responses from my wife regarding single pilot washing machine operations, the tone is positively warm!
Thanks again for all replies, and all the best,
OAP