Two more days before I leave. Two days to do three days' work. Everything takes longer than I expect and every job reveals two more.

But ready or not, as of Friday afternoon, I'm on the road again. I will see some of you in Adelaide, some in Perth, others in the UK and Germany. Sadly, there are some of you I won't see at all but it's a small world and who knows? You might get to my neck of the woods at some stage:-) And those of you I'm leaving behind, why, I shall look forward to seeing you when I get back!

While I'm away I will have access to e-mail but I'd appreciate it if we could keep traffic to a minimum. Please, no jokes or forwards! It would be cool if you would visit my blog now and then and leave the odd message. I'll update it as often as I can with news of my travels and meetings with old and new friends. I decided on this means of staying in touch rather than round robin e-mails because I know not everyone really wants them. On a blog you don't have to feel obliged to answer or even to look at the darned thing in the first place:-) However, it will be great to get your messages, if you feel like stopping by. If you've never left a message on a blog before, don't be scared - just click at the bottom of the post where it says "comments". That will take you to a new page where you can leave a message. You will have to copy down a set of letters to prove you're human, too. That's to prevent access by crawl bots - software set up to scour the web looking for e-mail addresses for their unscrupulous creators to spam or unprotected blogs where they can leave advertising.

It's my son Kurt's birthday tomorrow. And it was niece Frances's yesterday. Happy birthday, guys - and happy birthday to all the Aquarians reading this, too!

Next time I blog I'll probably be in Adelaide or even Perth. I hope you'll visit again late next week. Be well and happy meantime!