Out with the old...

Tony Blair has announced he will stand down as prime minister on 27 June.

He made the announcement in a speech to party activists in his Sedgefield constituency, after earlier briefing the Cabinet on his plans.

He acknowledged his government had not always lived up to high expectations but said he had been "very blessed" to lead "the greatest nation on earth".

He will stay on in Downing Street until the Labour Party elects a new leader - widely expected to be Gordon Brown

And of course at the same time here in France we have welcomed Sarkozy as the new President of the Republic, which is extremely frightening, but not at all unexpected. Every night here in Paris, and all over France there have been pros tests/riots. In Paris they've been based around Bastille. Rather pathetically I've stayed away, not only because I fear physical injury (hence my difficulties with acrobacy) but also because I don't think that an English person should go and protest about how the French make their political decisions.

'Hey you froggies! You picked wrong! Bad decision!' How could I say that after all those years of Thatcher, though in some ways he does make her look tame.

But this is essentially what the French are doing.
'Hey, we choose badly! We picked wrong! And now we're going to have (another) manifestation about it. Yeah!'

And as the British say goodbye to Blair and hello to Brown, and the French hello to Sarko we are getting ready to say goodbye to Lecoq and another wave of students, all eager beaver and full of their own ideas (which are definitely better and more interesting than everyone else's in the group) just like us appear. (Ok, slightly tenuious link to lecoq, I know!)

For a moment these changes seem important and momentous and then they happen and you get used to them and it just becomes another part of your life.

I will be so sad to say goodbye to some friends. The close friends who'll be going back to the other side of the world. I already know from having my brother and sister-in-law and baby nephew (who I may perhaps have mentioned occasionally before now) in Chicago that maintaining a relationship by skype is difficult. And more than that, the friendship is irrevocably changed and will never, can never be the same again, it's so linked to a time and a place. Sometimes it's sadest when a relationship changes so much from what it was it would be better if it ended at the happy time.

And sometimes not. Imagine what fun we'll have if we can manage a reunion 10 years from now? Catching up on 10 years of gossip. 'You married who!!??' 'Her play was a success?!!' etc etc.

10 years on from my last drama school and I think I'm pretty much the only female actor in my class whose still working, or attempting to work. Very scary. It's one profession for men and another for women...

All the more reason to make these last few weeks count before this magic time ends. I'm nostaglic for the present.