Thoughts of Oz

It's been a long held ambition of Richard and I to go to Australia together.

I made a trip to Sydney for ten days in 2005 to take a group of actors doing a corporate play about epilepsy. “Brainstorm “ had been written for a pharmacy company and was, I knew as soon as I read it, a pile of tosh. When I heard it was to be staged for one performance at the World Neurological Conference in Sydney and that I would get business class travel, I managed to see the script in a different light.

Ten days in a city that I loved and to which knew I would one day return.

Richard was fortunate enough to be involved in production of the show "Billy Elliott" in Australia and had quite a number of trips over the years he worked at aka to deal with the show .he made many friends in Australia and AKA also now has an office in Sydney where several of his ex work colleagues are based.

Now, this year, over Christmas we will finally manage it.

At the moment I’m rehearsing in a rather damp Milan, but it’s exactly one month today that we will be climbing into our Singapore Airlines business seats and getting ready to set off.

So this is a first page of what I hope will be a diary and photo journal of our trip. The excitement and strangeness of a hot Christmas. A stay in Sydney, a Christmas in Melbourne and what we hope are the joys of the Blue Mountains. With lots of catching up with lovely people who Richard knows over there, and some that even own up to knowing me, it will also be time together for us at the end of what has been a busy, eventful and sometimes sad year. One of the main reasons we have the freedom to travel this Christmas is that I lost my Mum in May and now have no ties at Christmas. Richard has gamely sacrificed his Christmas for many years so that we could always look after her, and it's only been the last two years as she deteriorated that we have been able to consider this.

Now finally we are off. An adventure together to the other side of the world