This is from an Internet cafe in Honolulu on the way back from the Festival...and I am using a Japanese keyboard, so it is forcing me to touch type. I have had a great time, despite all sorts of difficulties (and my own timidity). It has also not been sun-bathing, but tropical stuff - ending with three days of torrential downpours (just like Glastonbury Festival....)

I haven't got time to do a long version now, but should be back at my homebase in a few days.

Well, I don't think I should be allowed to cross the road on my own, let alone go around the planet! I was packed and ready to go, doing the last minute bits....then I thought 'I'll just post that letter and go'. As the Post Office is next door, I nipped out to post Judith an ephemeris I found (it used to be a tradition), but, as the door clicked, I thought - 'I've already put the keys in the bag' - not thinking I would need them for a couple of weeks! Locked out! And although Julie normally works a quarter mile away - just today she is on a training session miles away...her sister (who has a key) is out...and I'm standing on the road in the drizzling rain - kicking myself. Hawaii seems a long way away. Well, there again, it really is! I am not flying until tomorrow, but I wanted to catch a little bit of London - so it is only stupid, and not disastrous. ["Dis-aster" OR the stars are making things difficult]

When I used to travel quite a bit, I didn't make many mistakes - I had routines. One of them was to never put keys in the bag until you've left the city...It's a funny old time. Still, I popped in to the circus house and caught a couple of friends to say goodbye to...Peter in from Finland and Dan (going out with the circus tour for the first time this year). So that was nice. I am just so jittery - it is weird. Of course - it's Chinese New year tomorrow, so it's a new moon...and (if you believe this stuff) there are loads of planets in Aquarius - including the Sun conjunct Uranus, and the moon just passed Neptune...and so on.

It's just me. I know this is some sort of Vision Quest to regain my perspective, or enthusiasm or something...It is a bold and dramatic move for no apparent reason. Still, I am not doing it very well. It was only on Saturday that I lost my wallet - so I will be a cash traveller, just as I always was before. I thought (just this once) I would be like everyone else and have a credit card backup. Well, I've had to stop that. I only got one two years ago to buy a computer, and do a bit of online shopping - I don't really use credit the way most people seem to these days.

Still, and all - what kind of clown am I? Take a deep breath - and 'Take Two'. I am sitting at the circus computer (where it all started a couple of years ago, as Ali and I took our first tentative steps out into the Internet, under Steve's guidance). I confess my inablity to do things smoothly....it's just craziness, but I guess that is what is all about...I have been sensible and reliable for quite some time now, and it is driving me nuts - well, no, it's not that bad, but I am dog-tired and bone weary, and that's for sure.

I have knocked the adverts off this page now, with my great new PayPal account....

I'll calm down, soon - I get excited about all this. Even paying my Income Tax electronically was a gas! Sad, huh?

Well, I don't know how I am going to do this without stress - when all I want to do is potter along on an adventure...
I don't want to be much more organised than not missing crucial planes....
That's it, for me...

I have started by becoming a Pro Blogger - I mean, I am VERY pro-blogger as it happens. I just got grumpy when my ISP decided not to let me publish it direct on my website [Thanks ntl] [Irony] because I had just sussed out how to put pictures on, and I couldn't do that with BlogSpot...or at least, I couldn't work out how to....

I greatly empathise with Evan William's efforts [sounds like a Welshman - I live in Cardiff, now] - as I seem to have ended up at a node in the local library's network in the middle of an upgrade AND and network merging, so I spend a LOT of time with people asking me why it doesn't work...and trying to stay both polite AND enthusiastic...