Arriving in Schiphol I had a few hours to kill. I noticed something rather interesting in an electronics shop. It was a tiny short wave radio, no bigger than a pocket dictionary. I own a short wave radio already (used when working in Libya and recently in Nigeria) but eventually decided it was too big and heavy to take with me round the world. But this little one? It was $300 – a lot of money. But then I thought to myself, if I could spend $1 every day on a international newspaper to keep informed, then I probably would do so. I will be travelling for over 200 days, so this radio would almost pay for itself! And it will take up less space than a newspaper would have, and the news on the BBC World service would be more up to date than a newspaper…

I bought one!!

Something of a shock awaited me aboard the KLM Jumbo as it taxied out. I was sitting comfortably reading the manual for my new radio when I heard the flight announcement. I thought I “knew” that it took about 5 hours to cross the Atlantic, and… well… Houston was across the Atlantic. So when they said “the flying time to Houston is 11 hours”, I exclaimed “11 HOURS??” with the enthusiasm of someone who is convinced the announcer has got it wrong. Of course it did take 11 hours. Houston is further than Newfoundland…