January 26th 2009, 03:10

It turns out that we’ll have to fork out as good as 500 quid on pumping ourselves full of tropical diseases in the name of modern medicine in order, they tell us, not to die during the trip. Hepatitises A and B, yellow fever, typhoid, cholera, meningitis and rabies for starters. The guy makes it difficult to tell if he is ripping us off, deliberately anyway, by disguising his calculations with a cloak of…

January 26th 2009, 03:08

The plan is that this will be transformed from a boring old Word document into a blog. If you’re going to do anything in life, it seems churlish and secretive these days not to broadcast it to the whole world. It all seems terminally modern to me, and I’m quite pleased that, as far as Word is concerned, blog isn’t even a real word. That’s one thing Bill Gates and I can agree on.

January 26th 2009, 03:01

Perhaps unusually, I’m beginning my travelogue from my desk at home. Having told everyone our plans for the next year (top three comments so far: “That’s going to test the friendship”; “Don’t get pregnant”; “What if I die?” Thanks for that, Mum), and after all the calls made and emails sent to travel agents, and having attended nearly all of Alex’s leaving dos, as far as I’m concerned, we’ve already started.…