I have made 2 trips to Australia, one in May1997 and one in 1998. Both were in my alter-ego as a flute player playing with the Australian Chamber Orchestra. Most of what follows was written during the first trip and shortly afterwards - the result was originally planned for an article for Good Woodworking Magazine, but it didn't get finished in time for it to be really current. the latter part is an appraisal of three fine craftsmen that it was my pleasure to meet during my trip.

It was the first time I had ever been upside down and for it to feel entirely natural. It is different there, they have double decker tube trains, you stand on the left on escalators and the KitKats taste different [really! ~ and they're more expensive ~ I read an article once about how KitKats tasted different depending on where you were in the world and didn't believe it, but it's definitely true!].

It was always going to be a multi-purpose trip. After being based in Sydney for the first 10 days for rehearsals we were going to be travelling around a lot and I wanted to spend as much of the actual travelling time tapping away on my trusty Mac Powerbook. I was working at the time on my second box making book, 'Fine Decorative Boxes'.

The PowerBook was not-so-trusty as it turned out ~ a small portion at the top right hand corner of the screen turned bright yellow [a bit disconcerting since it was only a mono screen] and for a short time it even refused to smile at me and say 'Welcome to Macintosh'. As my camera had also completely jammed almost immediately on arrival I despaired of getting anything woodwork related work done at all. As it turned out, my PowerBook soon pepped up [jet lag probably] and I survived being without my camera for a few days while it was fixed.

As well as the playing and writing the trip also seemed to be an ideal chance to visit a few Aussie woodworkers and write an article about them.