Bob circa 1976, Sophie circa 2017 Sutherland Ave, London
We had to go and see for ourselves, this amazing quirk of fate!
41 years ago my husband and practice manager extraordinaire, Bob stayed in the Vienna Hotel in Sutherland Avenue for a month when ‘doing’ London as an architecture student. He had a ball there – I don’t ask any questions – but needless to say he has fond memories for the Vienna Hotel. When our daughter headed over to the UK in February this year to ‘do’ London, she went to stay with a friend for the first two weeks and amazingly the friend was staying in Sutherland Avenue. I mean what are the chances in a city the size of London?
So she arrives, heads to her friend’s house, she chats to Bob – tells him the street number and boom IT”S THE SAME ADDRESS EXACTLY! Of course it’s no longer The Vienna Hotel – it is now refurbished into townhouses but her friend is actually living in the same building that Bob stayed in 41 years before.
That is an amazing quirk of fate and Bob will soon be planted in that photo above, right outside his old stamping ground The Vienna Hotel.
Heading off overseas is always exciting, but this trip will be a great opportunity to network with Women’s Health colleagues from around the world, when we gather at the International Continence Society (ICS) Conference in Florence… yes Florence. ICS certainly know how to pull a crowd.

Some of the physios are Aussies, but many will be physiotherapists who I have become very friendly with through our various professional Facebook groups; some I have been lucky enough to meet IRL (in real life) when they have presented in Australia such as Michelle Lyons, a wonderful Irish Physio who travels the world teaching. Others I will be meeting for the first time face-to-face. Who would have thought such a thing was possible? The internet is a wonderful thing.

I am also very excited to meet up again with Elaine Miller, comedienne extraordinaire, who is making a huge effort after her giant appearance at The Edinburgh Fringe to collide with me in York. I have a pressie for her, from the fabulous Fiona Rogers of Pelvic Floor Exercise which could be the draw card, but I am so grateful she is making the effort to catch up. Elaine calls herself a recovered incontinent and through comedy gives evidence-based information to her audiences while cracking them up with her glorious humour. Elaine has done so much to bring incontinence out of the cupboard and it’s always nice to talk to people who make me laugh.
So at last it is just one more sleep (yes there will needless to say be no sleep on the plane) until I get to hug my daughter. It’s been painful to sit thousands of miles away watching TV footage that is hard to watch. I want to helicopter around her (and Jimmy) for a short while to build up my mummy stocks – yes Jimmy there are hugs to be passed on from Deb too!
See you again when I’ve landed in Nick’s homeland.