On the 30th May, Darren and I flew to New York so that he could do some more promo (it is really just NEVER ENDING isn�t it??). Have you ever heard of Barry Humphries, or his alter ego Dame Edna Everage??? Okay.. if you haven�t, you really need to educate yourself on this man. He (or she.. as Dame Edna), is quite possibly the funniest entertainer I have ever seen. We had the opportunity of going to the Dame Edna show on off Broadway while we were in NY. Originally, Darren and I were going to go because my Mum was travelling with us on a holiday from Australia, and she is a massive fan. So, we go along to the show, not expecting to find it as absolutely humorous as it was. Dame Edna has no shame at all and she/he kept us laughing.. NON STOP.. for the full two hours of the show. If you live in New York, please make sure you get yourself to see this show before it ends.

The guys were in New York, mainly, to perform at the Z100 radio show on Long Island. They did a 30 minute set alongside artists such as Macy Gray, Christina Aguillera and Hanson.

They were also in NY, to perform on the NBC Today Show. I met a few of you guys there, most notably, Claudia, who was very sweet. I took a photo of her, which I�ve posted for you this week. We were all so exhausted during these few days. We didn�t get back from Long Island until around midnight, then we were up at 5:00am for the Today Show performance on the street. This was so great.. although I did think that NBC got just a little bit carried away with the confetti and streamers that went off after every song. At one point, Daniel was standing there with streamers hanging from his guitar (this, of course, made playing a little difficult.. but..gee, it looked good!)

We went straight from NBC to the airport to get onto a plane to Boston.

Ben and Lee doing what they like to do best on their way to the airport in Boston

The fact that we made it to Boston is a miracle in itself as they had us fly in one of those ridiculous propeller planes. We NEVER fly in prop planes as I believe they should have been outlawed at the turn of the century.. but for some reason, we were tricked into boarding it. It just didn�t sit right with me when I noticed the rubber band holding down the propeller. Anyway... whatever, it was scary, we were wedged in like sardines as there was hand luggage everywhere.. but.. we made it!!! I have to assume we�ll always make it, I guess.

Anyway, we landed at Providence airport and drove out to the venue in Boston for the Kiss radio show. What a truly lovely city Boston is! This show was fun as there were around 25,000 people there, it was outdoors on a very hot day and the crowd loved it. In fact, by the end of the set, Darren and Dan had them all up dancing. Good to see! This was all good.....

I must digress now and mention our intrepid VP of Radio Promotions from Columbia Records.. Mr. Lee Leipsner. You do remember him don�t you? I�ve written about him a couple of times.. he is the one that drives Darren mad with his incessant use of the mobile telephone. Well... he was looking pretty darn relaxed when we saw him in Boston, and I�m sure that it had to do with the Florida vacation he had just returned from. I have included a photo of him here for you..

of radio promotionfor Columbia see how tanned he looks and how happy he seems with his new George Clooney haircut? Well, the reason I�m talking about him is because he told me that he�d recently read my diary (can you believe he doesn�t read it ALL the time!!!) and he was quite put out about the comments I have made about him in the past. To make it up to him I promised that I would write something this week and say something nice.. but this task is so difficult, especially as he gave me nothing to work on except the newly acquired �flip flops� he was brave enough to wear in front of us.

'flip flops'/ . Once again.. you have photographic evidence. So.. here is where I shall stop.. for Lee�s sake. I think silence will serve me better in this instance.

Straight from Boston we drove to the airport and boarded a plane for Bologna in Italy. Darren and Daniel were performing at the Pavarotti and Friends concert in Modena. We landed in Italy and Darren and I went STRAIGHT to his first meeting with Pavarotti and his first piano rehearsal of the song they were going to sing together. It was O Sole Mio, but Darren was singing it in Italian. You will note that by this stage, Darren had not slept for almost 2 days and he was deliriously exhausted. But.. this did not deter Mr. Pavarotti from sitting Darren right down, in front of 2,000 media people (allright.. allright.. there were only about 20) and telling him to just start right on singing! This would be a daunting task in itself.. but imagine it with no sleep! I felt for Darren.. but as always.. he pulled it off and was ushered out of the room to get to the ampitheatre for the first band rehearsal. By this stage he was almost asleep on his feet.. but, he was confronted with media wanting on the spot interviews. After doing about 15 of these, I had to drag him out of there to get some sleep.

What a beautiful, beautiful.... BEAUTIFUL place Bologna is. So charming with cobble stone streets everywhere. In fact, there were no roads paved and we would be walking around forgetting we were just strolling casually in the middle of the road, until the spell was broken by a car horn. I kept thinking I was in the Queen Street Mall in Brisbane. The whole Italian experience was just so magical. Right from the start.. we stayed in a lovely hotel with all the other artists.. who included George Michael, The Eurythmics, Aqua, Skunk Anansie and Tracy Chapman. We dined each night at Mr. Pavarotti�s restaurant.. the weather was gorgeous and it almost felt like a holiday. The Dalai Lama spoke on the night, and in fact, he held a talk in our hotel... it was just mind blowing really!

The night of the performance, I could not get out the front of the stage to take some photos for you. I did, however, try.. but could only get a couple of crappy shots from the side while they were performing I KNEW I LOVED YOU. So.. when it came time for Darren to do his duet with Pavarotti... I just stayed out back and watched it on tv (but I did get a photo of Dan and some of the gang watching Darren on television!) Okay.. so THIS was my proudest Darren moment. He just got up there and blew everyone away. He sang superbly.. just like a mini opera singer (in fact Mr Pavarotti said that he could be a tenor..).. and, as I said to you, he sang in Italian. I was shaking like a leaf when he went on, I�ve never felt sooo nervous for him (although I knew he would come through it brilliantly).

After the show, we briefly attended the gala dinner.. which wasn�t that fabulous due to the fact that they got the lighting all wrong! Instead of languishing in candle light looking all gorgeous and soft focus, they decided to keep the fluro lights on ALL NIGHT, putting a firm halt to the aforementioned gorgeous / soft focus look we were all hoping to achieve! We had no other choice but to leave early, as lighting is of grave importance to everyone..and this really wasn�t doing it for us. So, we all went back to the hotel bar, which turned out to be the place to be as every band came back there and the night turned out to be a very relaxing, but fun..... get together (not really what I expected when I purchased the hot pink �gala dinner� outfit that seemed a little out of place in a �hotel bar.. but.. c�est la vie!).

We saw Emmy (OB1K) again as always. Italy�s most loyal SG fan. She gave Darren another book full of her drawings and he was so impressed with them. We made sure Daniel saw the entire book also, and he had nothing but praise for her talent. I wish I could draw like that! We also got to meet another lovely Italian girl.. Lydia... plus there were loads of other kids there that the guys met..but I don�t have all your names. Whatever,.. you know who you are and it was a pleasure meeting you!

The day after the Pavarotti and Friends show.. , everybody boarded separate planes and took off for a three week break. Darren went home to SF and Dan went back to Oz.. I, on the other hand, had my Mum with me and we flew to London for a driving tour of every castle ever built in England. You understand.. these are the sort of things you HAVE to do with your mother!

That�s it for me for now.. I�ve got RSI from typing so much.

See you guys next time!

Leonie