Well, it's been quite a month in the land of North. We have been touring the country, battling illness, fatigue, alcohol poisoning . . . no, we were very sensible - most of the time. The group was fortunate to be able to be joined on tour by Nick's lovely wife Nina and brand new son Ari! It was a real treat. It was quite a sight to behold in the foyers of various venues; Neen and Ari doing a double act at the CD table. I'm sure we sold more CDs due to the 'cute' factor. And the little hat we had made for Ari with the group's website emblazoned across it in bold text was our contribution to the shameless promotion industry. Next step for that boy is beauty pageants, I fear.

It was great going back to my home town of Adelaide as part of our tour, albeit for only three days! We had a great gig with my old choir, the Adelaide Girls Choir, which my younger sister Miriam is now a senior member of. It was a strange sensation to be singing with the group that formed so much of my musical education and the group that is now putting all that education to use. We also had a fantastic night at the Bridgewater Mill in the Adelaide hills - a very full house, which made for a hugely fun gig. In Brisbane we performed at a club in the Valley called the Healer - music for the soul - a very cool venue. It's next to a club by the name of Slice of Heaven, which used to be a church and the Healer used to be the church hall. My eighty-year-old grandmother attended that gig and told me that she used to know the woman who was the organist in the Slice of Heaven church (I'm not sure what it's original name was) fifty years ago! It's funny to see how things change. We finished up with Melbourne, which was a bittersweet gig, really - we had an absolutely full house at Bennett's Lane Jazz Club in the city, but over 150 people were turned away. Our apologies to those who made a trip into the city needlessly. We'll be back in Melbourne again soon, so keep your eyes and ears peeled.