Now, before our generous and much-appreciated sponsors read the headline and fear we are spending wads of cash that could be better spent; relax. Your contribution to this site will not be frittered on some dodgy junket. I’m picking up the tab for this jaunt. By which I mean someone else is picking up the tab, but I will use the luck that has been delivered to utilise my time abroad.

My first time abroad.

That’s right, after treading this beautiful patch of earth we call Australia for nearly {actual age removed by author} I am able to step off this wide brown land and discover what the rest of the big blue ball looks like. Well, another small section of it, anyway.

Next week I jet off to Sydney to meet a bunch of blokes from around Australia who have all been selected to represent the golden wattle and boxing kangaroo in a BBQ competition in Lexington, North Carolina. That’s BBQ as in Barbecue as in slowly smoking very large chunks of dead animal for an extraordinarily long time over coal and wood chips. It’s a long way from Australia and it’s a long way from throwing a few mystery bags and chops onto a flaming grill and cooking the lot in the time it takes you to empty a couple of tins.

The Australian part of the competition, sponsored by Meat & Livestock Australia, saw a BBQ champion selected from five states to form Team Australia (for want of a better, catchier name – your suggestions welcome) and I was fortunate enough to catch the judges on a good day with my entry of char-grilled Porterhouse with Cascade Stout ice cream (yes, together, try it).

But how does Brews News come into the equation? The competition finishes on April 30th. I will still, therefore, be in the United States when the calendar clicks over to May 1st. That’s the very same May 1st upon which the 2012 World Beer Cup commences in San Diego which, I am told, is also conveniently located in the same United States. How good is THAT?!

So, after doing my best to impress the BBQ experts and avoid any unpleasant international incidents, I shall remove my ‘Trust Your BEEFlex’* apron and don my Brews News T-shirt to file some hopefully coherent reports from the world’s most prestigious beer awards and conference. I believe I may even be in the company of such friends and beer lovers as Brad Rogers, Dave Bonighton and Brendan Varis so, really, what mischief could possibly ensue?

Wish me luck in Lexington as I attempt to bring home the bacon (brisket, actually, ask your Gran) and do all our readers proud. Wish me luck in San Diego as I attempt to keep up (metaphorically and physically) with my brew-guides and the best beers the world has to offer and I shall think of you all as Brews News first international appointment unfolds.

*Yes, I fully appreciate just how lame that ‘beeflex’ tagline is, but unless you can think of something cleverer and get it printed on an apron for me before Sunday, that’s what I’m stuck with.