Thank you! Not going to lie, 1A and 2A were really rough (and I still don't get 2A) so I had to find a foothold further down (8A would have been it, except 9A is also still puzzling to me) and then work my way back up afterwards. The bottom half was super-smooth though.
Yes, I reckoned adding some circles was fair play here.
Hopefully this will help for 5A. "Leed" is a Scottish word for song, tune. Can't make it any more romantic! Maybe I'll change it to the abbr. if people don't like it.