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Something of an epic journey back from Vladivostok – It took 21 hours door to door! There were no delays, it just takes that long.

I got home and slept (sort of) although the 10 hour time change isn’t making like easy at the moment. I phoned the office early this morning and had to apologise for a rather rambling and disjointed conversation.

Still… the upshot is that all the paperwork is complete and despatched, as is my Invoice and the Customer Questionnaires, so I’m up to date. What’s next?

My next official tour is the Grand Tour of China in April. Before that however, I have my own vacation to think about. Mrs TimOnTheTrain and I are both (terrifyingly) 60 this year. I suggested a small low cost celebration, (maybe Pizza Express or McDonalds?) but Mrs TimOnTheTrain informed me that this wouldn’t cut the mustard and that I should “…stop being so bloody tight – You’re only 60 once and you’ll be a long time dead!”. Faced with the inescapable logic of this I was forced to open my wallet and now we’re off to Florida for 10 days. We’ll be joining my brother and his wife and our two sons and their respective fiancées, so there may be some minor consumption of alcohol and other adult activities. We’re mostly in South Beach, Miami but have an excursion down to Key West for a weekend.

I’ll have to remember that I don’t have to count them on and off the bus, or wait in the hotel lobby for 30 minutes after check-in in case of problems, or distribute questionnaires on my performance at the end of the week.

I shall of course post occasional updates and photos. South Beach is home to some genuinely weird people! It would be rude not to share them with you all… or with Yawl as they say down there.