It's 2am local time and I'm getting ready to leave the hotel at 3:30 to head to the airport. I haven't slept in the hope that I'll sleep on the plane. It's two flights totalling around 18 hours in the air. I'm 6'1" and flying economy.

Flying is not fun for me.

Especially if they show that bloody 'Spiderman 3' film again.

I land (insert my usual disclaimers about becoming a smear across the Atlantic should the plane drop out of the sky) around 4pm on Thursday.

Then I shall scuttle, or more likely crawl, home and attempt to recuperate in time for returning to work on Monday.

If you want to contact me then Friday might be your best bet.

What is kind of strange is that before the holiday I divided my life up into things that had to be done 'before holiday' and things that could be safely delegated to 'after holiday' - and I'm kind of looking forward to getting my teeth into some of that 'after holiday' work.