Who would have guessed that two days in a Golden Bay camping ground would yield such extraordinary insights into the nature of life and the universe? I'm already at work on a book based on my 48-hour caravan holiday called “Zen and the Art of Caravan Maintenance”. Those of you who have not yet embarked on your holidays might find the following excerpts from the book helpful.

I'm in the kind of low mood which makes reckless displacement activity seem perfectly reasonable -  getting a drastic new hairdo, running off with an unsuitable man or boarding a plane to Somewhere Else. In the far distant past I once managed all three at once.

I have spent the last fortnight or so, trying to cram The Dog and my life into my newly-purchased 42 sq metre flat. I'm not sure if The Dog thinks he’s living in my kennel or I’m living in his. All I know for sure is that we are sharing a very very small flat. Forget all that stuff I said a few postings ago about how Small is the next Big Thing. Theory is one thing and practice is another. Talk, as they say, is cheap.