If you're going to ... .........

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

We'll certainly be going to the West Coast again next year, but it looks like we've got Oz to fit in as well. I'm not sure I fancy two big journeys in the same year, so it may be we have to combine our trips and do a round the world tour instead. How will I find the time off work? Don't know - but I'm thinking about it.

I've been in touch with a couple of operators and got some preliminary ideas for a possible schedule:

1. Aberdeen-London- Singapore (or Hong Kong)

2. Singapore-Oz

3. Oz-Hawaii (or Fiji)

4. Hawaii-LA

5. LA-Medford

Then back again! What do you think? Could this be a plan? We'd need to think about what to do in Oz - would like to see Melbourne and Sydney as well as Adelaide. It's been suggested we could do the drive along the coast from Adelaide to Melbourne, then fly to Sydney - or we could it in reverse and fly in to Sydney and work our way round from there. We would also need to consider how much stopover time to spend in Singapore (or Hong Kong) and Hawaii (or Fiji).

Now when? Early part of the year again? Get the tail end of summer in Oz and then on to Southern California, followed by the Oregon spring rain again? It's Jo's 60th birthday on 20th March and the week that follows happens to be the Oregon school holidays - same as this year.

I've written all of this down to help myself think my way through it all - it's far from a done deal yet, but at least putting my early thoughts down in writing has helped me to think a bit more about the logistics. Any other inputs welcome of course.

That's enough about 2011 plans - there's still lots to do in 2010 yet, including the first of 3 trips to London this year in a few weeks' time. That's going to be a busy weekend - I had originally planned just my usual short annual overnight trip down to Lord's to see the England - Australia ODI, but Dave Williamson was lucky enough to get 2 tickets for Wimbledon on the Thursday, 2 days before Lord's, so he asked me. We've subsequently managed to fit in a couple of gigs as well - we got tickets to go and see Crosby Stills & Nash at the Royal Albert Hall on the Saturday night, and discovered at the weekend that Laura Marling is heading up the bill at the second annual Serpentine Sessions (http://www.serpentinesessions.com/home/) on the Thursday evening, so we're going to that as well now. If the weather holds fair, it could be a trip down to Henley with the toffs on the Friday to see the Regatta, so it's going to be all go!

I'll barely have recovered from that weekend before I head off to Slaley Hall the following weekend for our annual Summer Tour golf trip.

Then, there's our weekend at the Fringe - it's on from 6th to 30th August, but I'm back in London for the England - Pakistan Test match on 21st August, so it'll either have to be the first, second or last weekends that we go to Edinburgh.

And, of course, the 3rd trip to London comes in November when we go to see Jools Holland at the Royal Albert Hall.

More immediately, I've got my annual medical next Monday - I'll need to ask them to look at my knees and possibly get a referral. I'd long ago accepted the pain and distortion in my right knee, which was badly damaged at football training back in 1970 - just before I met Jo - but now my left knee has been playing up for the last few weeks - I need to have at least one leg that I can rely on - particularly if I'm going to manage to complete (a bit of) the West Highland Way in September.