Well I have just left some very fat mosquitos pining for my blood in Newcastle NSW. I have always been that painful person saying I never get bitten , well my kamikaze karma finally came . The bastards feasted on me for 7 whole days, I spent 30 dollars on tablets, cream and rid, that part of me is glad to be in mozzie free Melbourne.

I also left a little bit of my heart there in New Lambton Newcastle. I had the privilege of pretending to be a stage manager for the birth of a new Australian Rock musical. This piece was the brain child of Julien .If you look back at my blogs from Nov ’19 you will see when I volunteered for another of Juliens projects in Cambodia. The premise for this production evolved from Julien being a covid refugee here in Australia with borders closed and only New South Wales as his playground a trip to the outback was envisioned as with everything Julien sets out to do it happened. . Filled with artists,poets, musicians and outback adventurers the troupe set off to explore our dusty red land , entertaining the locals at the places they stopped in. A bit like Kerouacs 1957 novel On The Road, with out the enhancements.

From that trip the seed was planted for this an Australian first, a musical with the score written by Steve Kilbey from The Church, he was on the original bus trip so his songs evoke the scenes that take place and what songs they are, some bring tears to your eyes others make you want to throw away any inhibitions and dance like no one is watching. I had retired from public dancing after a video of me free dancing in Ao Nang Thailand appeared on FB about 18 months ago but Steves tunes got me out of the seat and even on to the stage for the last song of the final performance, I couldn’t help myself.

Lisa (who was with me in Kampot performing at the’19 Krwf )and I travelled together , actually if it wasn’t for her I wouldn’t have gone and I knew Julien would find a use for me doing something. It was a bit of a reunion with Lisa ,Julien, Justin who was also at ’19 KRWF in Cambodia and I. From this experience I have learnt such a deep admiration for musicians who have to play, learn cords, words to songs they have never heard before and play with people they have never met, did some big days ,it paid off as by performance time they were a tight band, the actors who fitted in as many rehearsals as they could between work and family. the set designers who painted and built tirelessly,and the sound & lighting guys . I just wandered around writing things on A4 paper and just being there, apparently I wasn’t to bad in the role, who would have thought just being me was a job!!!

I met so many talented humans, some have been on the road awhile while others are just beginning the journey, to meet these fabulous generous people touches my heart. We all had the same focus , wanting to do justice to Juliens concept and Steve’s incredible songs. Two of me, two photographers, The band called the Broken Hillbillies was like Noahs ark with 2 of everything also, the 2 young drummers who at first I thought were twins but turns out they had only met were so in tune with each other it was like watching 4 arms of the one person, Incredible. The amazing keyboardists who had just met were again in sync with each other. It was trully awesome . The acting , singing, dancing cast were brilliant .

The Road to Tibooburra has wheels and may come to a theatre near you in 2022. The soundtrack will be recorded and performed soon I hope. I want to dance again to those wonderful songs and reconnect with the gorgeous people I met.

Sometimes in life you just have to take the risk and do something spontaneous , I have always sometimes to my detriment, but this trip it enhanced my life , it inspired me , it reenforced my belief that everyone is beautiful. Please excuse my photos some are a bit blurry.

Every morning I wake to one of the songs in my head and I smile.

until next time