This is a fairly quick post, as so often, to warn you that I'm going to be away for a while. In this case, I'm going to spend the weekend in Istanbul; as usual, I don't expect to have much net access while I'm away. I should be back very late on Tuesday 10 April, UK time.
Many of you will probably think that this won't make much difference anyway, given how little time I seem to have been spending in blog-land recently. The reason for this is that I'm organising a month or so's tour of the United States and Canada, covering most of May and the first week of June. I'm starting in Canada, with Montreal and Toronto, then taking a couple of weeks to head south on the east coast, via Boston, New York and Philadelphia to Virginia. From there, I head across the continent, via Chicago and Arizona (for the Grand Canyon) to Los Angeles. I have nearly a week in California, then head north to Vancouver, for flights via Calgary back to Toronto for a day or two, and then back home to Britain. As you might guess, most of this will be done by train, and I'm looking forward to seeing a lot of America's natural beauty roll past outside my window. I'm also hoping to see quite a few bloggers, and also some "real life" friends. I think I've contacted everyone I had thought about meeting; if you think I've missed you, I'm sorry - please feel free to get in touch to suggest a meet-up.
Meanwhile, I need to finish packing - more, no doubt, once I'm back.
Take care
Mark
