It sounds like 3 - 4 hours per month is a bit optimistic then judging from the replies. I wasn't meaning to sound like a spoilt brat, it was more an arbitrary figure that I felt would be sufficient to keep the skills up. The money issue is something that I have a cunning plan to rectify and I'll let you in on it when I have sorted that one out.
The deadside joins is definitely down to experiencing as many airfields as possible but the one I did at Goodwood yesterday was very tight to say the least partly because they changed from RWY 32 to 24 which threw me a bit.
Night Rating, hmmm. Maybe you can elaborate a bit as I have thought about it but it's very rare in the UK that you can actually fly at night - isn't it?
The IMC is definitely something that I will do but I need to grow into flying more to get the benefit as I'm a bit of a fair weather pilot at the moment until I get more experience.
Do you guys think that a Tail Dragger course would improve short field operations? That would be handy for me.