My friends, family, His Holiness the Pope, The King of Norway, et al.

I've been working far too hard for the last three years (no sniggering at the back!) so I'm off travelling for six months or so.

My goal is to see a few of the places I always wanted to see, and have as much *fun* as humanly possible along the way. Count on me to do whatever it takes to have a nice day in South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, and Vietnam.

All of you receiving this email have expressed an interest, to some greater or lesser extent, (possibly at some point in the past) in having me keep you up to date with what I'm up to. So until you tell me to stop, I'm going to send you an update every now and then from far flung - and hopefully sunny - corners of the globe.

That is if I ever get out of London.

I missed my flight to Johannesburg last night, after a last-minute arrival at the airport. With only 40 minutes until take-off, sweating under a mountain of baggage, I wasn't allowed to board the plane. All my (considerable!) charm was spectacularly unaffective on the lady behind the British Airways check-in desk.

"Whichever girl you just said goodbye to," she offered - one eyebrow raised - "I hope for your sake you did it nicely. Because it looks like you've got three more days of each other."

Flights to South Africa are jam-packed this winter, and seat availability is tighter than a Scotsman on the dole. So I've got to wait three days before I can fly. I'm booked on Sunday's 8.15pm departure to Johannesburg.

I wonder what it will be like?

- Neil