alexbrett. Thanks also for that. The IR(R) is something that I too am considering, and all of that makes me want to even more.
I have one question though. I'm based at Elstree which doesn't have instrument approaches, so how would I get back if the weather isn't too great? If I've understood previous discussions correctly you can use, say Southend to come out of cloud, and then fly below it to Elstree. However, carrying on from your example flight, popping out the bottom at 900', isn't feasible because you would then have to fly that low all the way from Southend to Elstree.
What am I missing?