Back from Peterborough where I’m currently working on an information management project - up at 5.30am on Monday am, Newcastle to York on the train (it’s cheaper to get two single tickets and break the journey - please don’t ask me to explain) - bumped into a long lost buddy on York station - quick exchange of phone numbers. Two nights in the Travelodge - fine, apart from last night with the bozo’s with their mobile phones at 1am, 2am and 3am and running up and down the corridors and shouting and charging in and out of each others rooms. Travelodge have emailed me a ‘what was it like for you form’ which I must remember to complete. A sleepless night but for the first time ever I almost completed the FT crossword.

The information management project? I’ve done 18 days so far - and have enough material to write several books…more on this to follow.

Travelling? I have more than my share of train stories to recall - but having driven down the A1 once and then round and round in Norfolk across the fens I will say this - car journeys are great when there’s plenty of time and back roads can be taken. I have a photographed memory now from a couple of weeks ago when I drove towards Ely and there rising from the mist like a limestone giant loomed the cathedral.

But as a preferred means of transport - event though it can be maddening - the train is much better. Got on tonight, looked out the window at the sunset, dozed off to Ali Farke Toure, arrived as the sun finally set over the Tyne and got a lift from the station. Home, relaxed, refreshed.

The last time I drove, I got home and for the first time in about two years I *really* wanted to have a cigarette.