Day 1 - How to Keep Sane in a Queue

I began the early day with bags packed, clothes laid out and a sense of anticipation, a feeling I was glad of throughout what was to become a very long and eventful day.

They say the best-laid plans are always somewhat ambitious, and ours was no exception. I had organised myself ahead of time, printed our e-tickets and checked in the night before. I caught the train on time, I arrived at Manchester Airport on time and met my lovely travel buddy on time. That's where our good luck seemed to flounder. As we made our way through security we were stopped for all manner of issue - an electric iron, medication, random checks. As we sighed with relief, our chaperone, Will, stopped and threw his hands in the air. We immediately knew something was wrong. We looked up at the flight information board and saw the word all air travellers dread - CANCELLED! Our well-timed flight had been cancelled thanks to good old staff sickness.

We began to panic, albeit calmly, and made our way back through border control and to the place where we met at the check in.

And so our wait began...

There are many things you can do in a slow crawling queue, and today we were going to discover just how many there were:-

• Practice balancing on one leg
• Talk about the politics of the day
• Play a game of 'eye spy'
• Concoct stories about all the people around you - who they are, what they do, why they're travelling
• Tell stories about yourself

Our queuing was kept endlessly entertaining as Judy told us stories of her life. As an actor, singer, teacher and voice coach, Judy Blazer has lived a wonderful and interesting life. She told us of her parents - her mother, an Italian voice coach at the Naples Conservatory and her father, a Polish-Jewish American who met during the Second World War. They settled in Montclair, New Jersey, raising Judy and her brother. As she grew up her love of singing grew and she moved to the Manhatten School of Music after dropping out of junior year at high school. 

Of the many wonderful stories that Judy told during our long wait, this was my most memorable. Her parents owned an apartment in New York and had many tenants over the years. One such tenant appeared in the 60's, a lovely British girl with lilac hair. The lilac-haired lady spent some time in the apartment and was liked so well by Judy's parents that they invited her over to dinner on occasion. When she left the apartment her parents showed Judy a gift that she had left. A vinyl 45 single of the song "Son of a Preacher Man". The lilac-haired girl was Dusty Springfield. 

As the hours went by in our seemingly endless queue, we found another flight and were given a complimentary lunch for our trouble. We flew to Heathrow and boarded our British Airways flight to Milan, finally arriving at 9.20pm. I noticed the rise in temperature immediately, but instead of feeling suppressed by it I felt a burst of renewed energy in my tired body. We were here!

Our Plane

The view as we flew over the Alps into Italy

Our wonderful host Seba arranged a pick up for us and we met Camilo; a marvellous member of the crew and Piacenzian who we would get to know over the next three days. Camillo drove us the 1 hour 30 minute trip to Piacenza and we finally arrived at the City Hotel where I washed the day off me, rested my weary head on my pillow and felt that anticipation once again.

The coziest hotel room