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On Saturday we went to Sizewell and walked down the beach to the bird reserve visitors’ centre. There were almost as many binocular-wielding twitchers as there were actual birds but it still made for a pleasant, interesting walk. We [...]

The bonus of backdating blog posts is that you can write up your notes when you get back from travelling and post them on the appropriate day.
The downside is that anyone using a browser rather than a feed reader will probably miss them by not scrolling down past postings that then appear above them.
So as [...]

We are woken up by the musicians. They come stamping around the camp shortly after seven, standing by the flap of each tent and banging their drums. It certainly beats the hey-hey-hey Mickey Mouse message they played down the phones on a press trip to Disneyland Paris a couple of years back.
Today we were leaving. [...]

Today we left Marrakech, but not to go home. Instead, we assembled after our meeting for a briefing by Azim’s team. They gave us maps, emergency mobiles and the keys to a fleet of twenty-odd 4×4, and sent us off into the mountains.
The idea was that we would all make our way out of the [...]

Marrakech is famed for its Souq. At home we have markets, but they don’t compare to this knotted tangle of streets, lined by tiny businesses that will have been trading in its shady corners since the Normans invaded Britain. It’s many travellers’ sole reason for coming to Marrakech.
After an early briefing we split into groups [...]

Uma Thurman was on our plane. I had never imagined she would fly budget. Anyhow, there she was occupying the front two rows, with the aircrew fawning over her all the way from London to Marrakech, and taking photos with their mobile phones, which clearly weren’t turned off.
The first we saw of Morocco was the [...]

Cirque du Soleil: it’s like buses. You wait years to see it and then three come along at once. So it was that last night we found ourselves at the O2 watching Delirium, just a few weeks after Varekai at the Royal Albert Hall.
It was a good show. Very different to any we had seen [...]

France in the spring is becoming a tradition. We zizz over on the Shuttle and drive to Boulogne for the afternoon, then head back through Calais to pick up a summer’s-worth of wine and spirits and home in time for bed.
The Shuttle is so easy, and barring a bit of head-scratching and map reading to [...]

Oscar wrapped the presents
It’s almost unbelievable that Will is one. It seems only a few months since he was born, while we were all out eating Spanish food on a Good Friday evening. But the fact that today was his birthday and we were off to Kent to celebrate is testimony to the fact that [...]

The last few weeks have been non-stop writing the book. I’ve been getting up at half five and writing before work, then writing when I’ve got back home again. I think the cat quite enjoys it. He sits on my lap at my desk and watches the cursor wandering across the screen.
Now it’s done. I [...]