Have you ever wondered if reality can truly live up to the excitement that anticipation creates? When Petula Clark released her autobiography Is That You, Petula? about a year ago I along with many others anxiously awaited its release.
Is there genuinely more happiness in thinking or dreaming about something than actually experiencing it ? Since I had spent the better part of more than five decades listening to Petula’s music as well as travelling from my home in Canada to many parts of the world to see her perform, there is no doubt my anticipation was sky high!
Fear of Disappoinment
When the book arrived , I was almost afraid to open it for fear of being disappointed. Over the years I had delighted in hearing Petula recount details of her career. To be fair, most of the anecdotes she had revealed in concerts were included in the autobiography. But there was so much more. The recounting of the details of her early life and career were fascinating to me. I like many in North America had not known that aspect of Petula’s life , having not heard of her until “Downtown” swept the airwaves in 1965. So the short answer to the question did the reality live up to the anticipation is YES! Any Petula Clark fan who has not yet read the book should look for a copy.
But over the years, in my travels to see Petula in concert, I had already experienced that anticipation and the planning indeed had its own level of joy, though nothing could substitute for the experience of sitting in a Petula Clark concert. As much pleasure as there may have been in the planning, the experience was the ultimate!
My Crash Course in Australian Geography
Probably the most challenging trip planning for me –was a surprise trip for my husband’s 70th birthday in 2014 to Australia. It was a little daunting to see a list of concert dates and venues with literally no idea how far any one was from the other. I quickly learned the distance from the outset of the tour to its conclusion covered thousands of miles and covered several states in the country. Geography was never my favorite school subject but I found myself taking a self-taught crash course in Australian geography!
It became apparent that getting from one venue to another would require several flights within Australia, besides the long flight from Toronto to Los Angeles and from there to Brisbane, where we began our Australia Adventure. Marvelously, my preparation worked and in a fairly complicated plan, everything went smoothly.
I can never satisfactorily provide a description of the three weeks we were in Australia in one post, so , for now, I will focus on the first concert to illustrate my theme here –that the reality really does surpass the anticipation.
We arrived in Brisbane, the capital of Queensland, the “Sunshine State”. It was a lovely modern city with a sub-tropical climate, and the Brisbane River winding its way throughout the city. We arrived at the beginning of May with what we would describe as summer-like temperatures, though May was considered an autumn month and summer in Brisbane we were told was much warmer. We managed a guided tour of the city on arrival, surprisingly not jet-lagged –having been able to sleep for a portion of the almost 15 hour flight from LA to Brisbane. Although our introduction to Australia in Brisbane was a very positive one, it was short — the next day we were off to our first concert venue.
Magic and Petula in Mackay
The ease of travel within Australia by plane was an aspect that impressed us greatly–as of 2014 there were none of the security lines and checks which were very common in North American and European travel. We used JetStar — an economical means of travel and it seemed very popular with families.
At any rate, we took the hour and half flight from Brisbane to Mackay where Petula was performing on May 2 at a beautiful, modern venue the MECC. After getting situated in our hotel we made the walk to the concert on what we felt was a humid evening –understandable since MacKay is actually 900kms north of Brisbane –(in Australia the further north –the more tropical).
Mackay was a much smaller place than Brisbane and has a casual coastal, small town ambiance. The MECC was filled for the performance and Petula was featuring, besides songs from the sixties and some show tunes, songs from Her Lost in You album –which includes some of my favorites, Cut Copy Me, the up-tempo Never Enough and Petula’s rendition of Gnarls Barkley’s Crazy. Petula was relaxed and it seemed in the Australia groove –having already performed a few concerts on this tour. She mentioned her love for Australia and I have to agree –there’s lots to love I would discover!
But for that evening suffice is to say, the anticipation could never really capture the magic of seeing Petula perform in a tropical venue half way cross the world from home!! We had a feeling we were in for a very wonderful Petula Adventure! And indeed we were!
