Travellers' tales

So good to be back from rainy Asia to the blossoming spring. I watched the Japanese tsunami on tv in the lounge at Hong Kong airport which was surreal. A colleague of a friend was on a bullet train travelling south from Tokyo at the time. The train slowed gradually, came to a complete halt and there was an announcement, "There has been an earthquake in the north." It then sped on its journey.
The best news while I was away was the dentist's, Sam Waley-Cohen's, victory in the Cheltenham Gold Cup.