7th October, 2002

You could accuse me of being a spoilt brat, but as I squeezed into my seat in the last row of the GO flight to Glasgow on Thursday, sandwiched beside a policeman and a handcuffed convict, I was bemoaning to myself the extent to which my life had changed from the heady days prior to my return to London, spent jetting about in First or Business Class between the Far East, London and the States. How the mighty are fallen! Admittedly, the convict brought a smile to my face. Standing at the top of the steps waiting to get off the plane in Glasgow I heard him say " Oh great, a'm gettin' a hur'l " and looked out to see a Black Maria on the runway waiting for him! Anyway, I spent the next day in a somewhat morose, nostalgic and contemplative mood, which was only shaken out of me by the fact that as I lined up to board my return flight to Stansted on Friday evening I found myself next to Lord Wilson of Tillyorn, former Governor of Hong Kong. Oh, I don't know. Maybe I'm worse than a spoilt brat, but somehow it cheered me up to know I wasn't the only one now slumming it on budget airlines!!