As I type the rain is coming down in Los Angeles - a fitting prelude to a trip to London in winter. Presumably we will not get as wet as Falstaff did when they dumped him into the Thames.

This adventure began in 2005 when I discovered there would be a new production of the opera "Sir John in Love" in March 2006. I have an old LP of the Sadlers Wells production and have always loved the music. It hasn't been seen on the stage since that production in 1958!!! Incredible. And you can't blame it on American parochialism; it hasn't been seen anywhere.

So, with low winter airfares, an apartment on the Thames, and two weeks to explore London, we are going to do this right. We've read the guidebooks, Googled everything else, and we're ready. The plane leaves LAX on Ash Wednesday evening (Better a Hung-over Pilot than a Drunken One is our motto). Our next dispatch will come as soon as we find an Internet connection in Londinium.