I have a massive fear of flying.  Some people think this is a silly thing, given that I get into my car and drive it every day.  I disagree, for lots of reasons, but mainly because I don’t fly my car over vast expanses of water.  A few weeks ago, I thought a fun way to get over this fear would be to put an abstract into a conference on the other side of the world.  Well, that wasn’t quite my thinking, but as it happens, I did put an abstract in for a conference on the other side of the world.  I thought if it was accepted, I’d just have a little think about the flying thing when it became necessary.

So now it’s become necessary, because the abstract was accepted for a poster presentation at this year’s Australian College of Midwives’ conference in October, which is happening at Gold Coast (you see that spectacular photo at the top of the page?  Yes, it is).  Initially, I thought I just wouldn’t be able to go – for fear and financial reasons.  However, it turns out that my university has a staff travel prize, which includes poster presentations, so that would be a help.  And then my eldest daughter pointed out that a lot of my friends would want me to go to Australia (apparently not in a bad way, though *hmmmm*), so I should raise the money to get out there.

Hence this blog: I’ve decided my daughter is right (as 17-year-olds so often are), and I really should try to go to the ball – sorry, conference.  I thought writing a blog about the adventure would be fun – my friends know how much I love to blog – and a good way of keeping my concentration along the next six months as I plan the trip.  As an added bonus, readers will get to enjoy my experiences of trying to get over my fear of flying enough to climb aboard a plane that goes over VAST expanses of water.  Fun times indeed…