32 DEGREES WITH A CHANCE OF RAIN...

And so this afternoon I am off to Singapore for the rest of the week for work. I can already hear the pilot as we come into land - "the weather is 32 degrees with a chance of rain". Is it ever NOT 32 degrees with a chance of rain?

On the downside, it's Singapore - overly clean and spectacularly dull at the best of times - even my mother said she wanted to throw some rubbish aoround in Singapore to make it look more lived-in. And it's nauseatingly over-bougainvillea'ed. I quite like the odd flowering plant dotted about, but Singapore's obesession with putting bougainvillea on every spare piece of ground is totally over-the-top. Plays hell with my hayfever too!

On the upside - I'll be able to avoid what would otherwise no doubt be minute analysis by Genghis and Attila of every statement and result coming out of the 7 primaries and caucuses (should that be cauci?) taking place overnight in the States. Both will be at the conference with me but as they will be locked in a room with 250 other delegates, and have limited access to CNN (news for americans, about americans, by americans) their ability to bore everyone else to death with their political analysis will be severely limited.

I shall endeavour to post the odd snippet here over the next few days, assuming I can work out how to post from another computer and can remember my own login details!