Dash lights flashing

I was in Devon last week and did a lot of touring around different places using narrow B roads. A number of times I had to hit the brakes hard as other drivers appeared at corners, luckily not going too fast myself.
Anyway after a while on one particular day after I was back on open roads I had put my lights on and noticed the steering wheel console lights were flashing. I pulled over and checked external lights and they were OK. When I indicated the internal flashing indictor didn't match the "ticking" sound of the indictor and was out of sequence. I stopped again and turned off the engine and waited a couple of minutes. While the engine was off I could hear a feint "tick" coming from around the centre of the steering wheel, I turned on the side lights and again the internal light (above the steering wheel) was flashing.
After a further stop of around half an hour (went for a walk around) when the car was started again the ticking noise had stopped.
I don't have access to a Lexia anymore and was wondering if anyone might know what it was. I wondered if it was something to do with the airbag as the noise was coming from the centre of the steering wheel.

Apart from needing a new clutch after I returned home (which is done now) the car is back to normal and the noise or flashing has not come back.

Any thoughts.