Innocents abroad

With more than a year gone by since my last blog entry in March 2020, it seems time to address the current situation, and end the silence.  Like most of the rest of the world during Covid-19, we have been confined largely to home, our only venture out being to take advantage of a brief lull last summer, to go to Scotland and walk the West Highland Way.  Other than that, Life has been… restricted.  We don’t complain.  We have a large enough house, a larger than enough garden.  Food continues to arrive in the shops, and Val’s business has continued online throughout.

Nor does it look as though things will change any time soon; in my bleaker moments, it seems they will never return to what we used to think of as normal.  No imminent prospect of foreign travel easing any time soon, and with that goes any chance of venturing abroad for theatre projects.

Forced to stay pretty much at home, I have decided to focus this ’40 years ago’ blog on a very different journey altogether. If the past is a different country, this is a trip to visit it.  Partly, this is inspired by the fact that it was pretty much exactly forty years ago that Val and I set off on an extended trip, first heading west to America, and which, over the next three years, was to carry us around the world.  Throughout that period, I kept a detailed diary, and I have decided to transcribe each day’s entry and post it on the blog, alongside some comments from now – explanations, clarifications, apologies, whatever.  That, at any rate, is the plan.  I remember thinking at the time – as referenced within the diaries – that I was giving myself a difficult task; keeping a diary requires the sort of organisational discipline that is not always my strength.  So wish me luck, and you are welcome to come along for the ride, for as long as it lasts – if all goes to plan, this will carry us all to December 18^th, 2024.