It's a funny thing, this blogging business. I suppose it's true that one blogs to be read but not knowing whether anyone does read your stuff, and then, even more so, not knowing WHO is reading it can be both daunting and discouraging. Which is why I stopped for a while. But in the last couple of weeks I've been amazed to meet people in very different places, both geographically and in my life, who have seen it and read it so here I am again! I've been tweeting too, mostly inspired by Stephen Fry's tweets - following him to Bayreuth and sharing his joy at the performances there has been a delight - of course when he talks about cricket, I'm lost! But I was reminded of when I was at the NT and Peter Hall was doing the Ring at Bayreuth - the stories were legion but, given the recent legal ruling, probably better not told here! Peter was an amazing man to work for - physically very imposing, he almost always spoke gently and calmly, playing against the sheer charisma that you felt the minute he walked into a room - most of the HoDs had stories of going to see him while you were steaming about something and coming away 20mins later feeling on top of the world,the crisis quite forgotten! Looking back now, it was an extraordinary time in my life! But then, so is now - Jorge from Sao Paulo emails to ask if I'm going to the World Arts Summit in Jo'burg next month and could we meet up; Craig, currently writing the score for a Mark Ravenhill play at his request, rings to see if I can go to Nashville to see his new work there; Elena from Toronto writes to make contact because she's been reading about CIDA - Lee and I have spent last couple of weeks working up CIDA's aims for the next five years - and I find that the DCMS cabinet (no ampersand on phone) is following my tweets - such fun!