I'm not saying airports are incredibly stressful, but...

How many people Caulkin their kids when they're not on holiday?

Picture of the Day

Yay. Road trip.

Ready to buy some Michael Moran books yet?

The fine people at Love Reading sorted out my author profile, which was showing a whole other Michael Moran who writes brainy books about politics and such. I'm not suggesting I'm all that better looking but the photo that they  had of him, wearing some sort of sun-hat and obviously on his hols, made me chuckle a little.

It's changed now and there's a nice picture of me and a shed. Far better.

The list of other books by me still makes for pretty droll reading though. Australia? Erotic Tickling? hard to estimate which is the less likely.

The other books I have worked on, if you are at all interested, are:

Shopping While Drunk - with Amanda Astill, Tom Bromley, and Simon Trewin.

Intended as a followup to our Guilty Pleasures book it's rather a better read in my view. It's a catalogue of useless tat that everyone likes. There are jokes. A few of them still stand up. Best of all it's a hardback, so you can use it to prop the window open on hot days.

The Encyclopaedia of Guilty Pleasures - with Tom Bromley, Simon Trewin, and some damn Yankees.

Exactly what it sounds like. A retooling of the US title of the same name that we probably lavished rather more love on that was necessary. Which was a shame, because it really didn't sell at all well. And whose fault is that? Well, unless you bought it, yours.

Rock and Pop Elevens - with Tom Bromley and Simon Trewin

I can't pretend this is a terrific book. It has its moments but the comedy is rather weighed down by a little too much fact. And who likes fact?

Check 'em out. You can find them in libraries, bookshops, and wherever unwanted books are dumped.

Good news for air travellers!

The much-publicised 'credit crunch' means fewer people will be booking flights this summer.

Don't worry though, you won't be all alone on the plane with no-one to talk to.

Because oil prices are at an all-time high, most carriers are cutting back on how many flights they'll be offering meaning that every plane will be as crowded and indeed overbooked as it's always been.

Perhaps 'good news' isn't quite the phrase I'm looking for.

It's good news for me though. I'll be at home, sunning myself in my garden, laughing at my own jokes.

There's First Class air travel, then there's..

..business class, premium economy and of course our old friend economy.

Did you know there was also a bog-class option?

I just hope the poor chap had something to read

4 holiday horror stories...

..by real travel writers. Not just parvenus & upstarts like your humble narrator, these are people who go on holiday for a living and know how to do it properly.

Still they endure mystery car lockouts, near-fatal poisonings, near-death bus rides and a mugging followed by a white knuckle hitch-hiking experience.

These are people who are trained to go on holiday properly. And some of them nearly died.

What chance of survival do you think you have?

Hot News: Half of all air accidents happen on landing, says survey

I guess the other half of accidents are due to planes are just crashing into the air then.

I shouldn't keep picking on air travel though. There are plenty of other terrible things to mention about holidays. It's just that the people that own airlines and airports seem to be so very good at making very large and amusing public mistakes. Like making public what an absolutely parlous state all of their planes are in.