Tickets, Tans, and trips

So alarmingly, and even though we have just finished a week where traffic reports have mentioned roads closed because of snow, our thoughts are turning to our summer holiday which begins next Saturday.

Regular readers will know that for the past four years we've been to an idyllic villa hotel in Turkey. We had decided that this year it was probably time for a change. The last thing you want a holiday to be is routine, and beautifully relaxing though our time in Turkey was, there had come to be a certain institutional feel about the pattern of our two-week holiday.

We were worrying where to go when fate took a turn. In December we will be heading off to Thailand for a wedding, and so decided to make that the main holiday of our year. We couldn't of course do without a break in the summer, but it necessitated a little rethinking on where we would go and how much to spend. So we are off to the Canary Islands, or Fuerteventura, to be more precise. 

Fuerteventura is also known as The Windy isle, so given the amounts of methane I can produce during a good night on the sofa, I should feel at home there.

Actually we've been there before. 15 years ago in 1998 after I finished a West End run of the comedy whodunnit "'Scissor Happy", we spent a February week in a supposedly gay friendly hotel. The holiday did what it was supposed to do, which was providing a little early sunshine after a long-run in town. The hotel did slightly less. And certainly one chambermaid as I recall could hardly be classed as gay friendly. In fact judging by the permanent scowl on her face, I suspect she was sadly bereft in the friends department of all sexual persuasions.

I suspect that in the intervening 15 years an awful lot of development has gone on the island, and we won't recognise it. Our main purpose is ten days to chill out, drain our Kindle batteries and recharge our own.

On our return Mr Howle will be thrust lnto the demanding pressures of his new job, and after two days delivering presentation training in Paris, I will be enjoying two months of what I enjoy most - acting. My brief appearance in the final episode of the very popular BBC 3 sitcom "Him and Her" obviously met with approval in all the right circles, and I am to be brought back for series 4. This means that my main work demand until the end of August will be spending time with one of the loveliest groups of people I had the chance of working with last year.  I am incredibly thrilled, and looking forward to it immensely.

My book has been proofed and is now being read by some people who may (or may not - on their head be it!) provide suitable marketing quotes for the cover. I'm scribbling away on my iPad as thoughts hit me for what might be my next foray into the literary world.

I've just had a quick visit to Dublin this week to deliver two workshops at a conference that Richard attends annually. Europe Talks Tickets. And do you know what? It does exactly what it says on the tin. There were a lot of people there from all over Europe, and they talked tickets, or rather ticketing. The world of the conference is one that I know well. The keynote, the seminar, the plenary, the breakout session - all things I've dealt with for a long time in many different situations, and yet it was rather fun flying out with rRch from Gatwick on Wednesday morning, and arriving at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin where he was checking in as a delegate, and myself as a workshop leader. I managed to lose my badge very quickly. I gave up my free polyester bag on sight, and yet I loved it all. It's always great to meet people from other walks of life, whose main interest and work is so different from one's own. In addition to which Dublin is a lovely city to spend a couple of days in, and it would be nice to think that one will go back before too long.

So there might be a gap in publication, as next week will see both Mr Howle and I horizontal, fully oiled, and hopefully not staining our towels.

Make of that what you will!