"A vacation is over when you begin to yearn for your work."

So said the famous American Physician, Dr Morris Fishbein

In two days time i'm flying to New York for six or seven weeks to continue my work in the play, Brief Encounter by Kneehigh Theatre Company  http://www.kneehigh.co.uk/  at
St Ann's Warehouse in Brooklyn  http://www.stannswarehouse.org/

We've been re-rehearsing at the Battersea Arts Centre this week, re-rehearsing because we'll be trying it for the first time without an interval; whilst initially sceptical about it, i'm now absolutely convinced; it really works a treat, Alec and Laura's story arc is much more prominent now and most importantly unbroken; it makes for a much more immersive and ironically, at just over ninety minutes, cinematic experience. Also we welcome two more actors from the show whilst it was in the West End, the terrific Tristan Sturrock and the delightful Dorothy Atkinson. It's quite surreal hearing lines and seeing characters one has been so familiar with for the last 10 months spoken and performed by different actors, surreal and yet both comforting and familiar, like an old friend one hasn't seen for a long time who are the same but different..

So, Heathrow Airport (in my view almost as exciting as Blackpool!) beckons on the 'event horizon', with it's promise of travel, shopping, eating, drinking and over-zealous security checks, suffused with that heart-quickening aroma of kerosene that lingers in the air, tickling ones nostrils.
No matter how many times i look in the drawer, my passport is reassuringly still there.
I look forward to Sunday the same way a child looks forward to Christmas.

My vacation hasn't even begun and i'm yearning for my work. What do you say about that then, Dr Fishbein..?