An ironic and satirical interlude from Manchester Airport.

Waking up at 0330 to drive to Manchester for an early flight to Singapore is no fun. Before you ask I was wait listed on all flights out of Heathrow yesterday and today but none came through. It only took three hours which was very good news as I lingered too long in the bath (few hotels have other than showers and I am away for four weeks) and missed my planned departure by 40 minutes. It ended up as an hour as I returned to the house three times for forgotten items (300 yards, two miles and seven miles). I was entertained on the way up by a backlog of podcasts of the News Quiz with the best Sarah Pallin joke so far: Q – Why did Sarah Pallin take her gun to New York? A – She heard there was a bear market. There were a host more, together with grateful thanks to the Republican Party for providing a satirists dream. In this respect I must admit to feeling guilty about the behaviour of the British contingent at last weeks complexity event. We were explaining to our liberal east coast colleagues that a victory for McCain, followed by a shock induced death would produce one of the richest sources of political and sociological research ever, extolling the number of papers that could be produced from the safe distance of a transatlantic location. Unfair really, but irresistible. Enough, some final emails then I board for Singapore and thence to Australia, back to Singapore and KL, followed by Canada, the US, Canada again and home in time for the Autumn Internationals (just).