As you may have noticed, I've been largely offline in August as I've been on holiday down-under, visiting Melbourne, Sydney, Christchurch and bits of their hinterlands.

I've had the chance to catch up face-to-face with some bloggy friends round here, including Matt Moore, Sean Callahan, Geoff Brown, Viv McWaters, Daryl Cook and Tony Goodson.

It's been a great trip all round, especially as I'm travelling with one of my best friends and there's been lots of good companionship. What I relearn on hoidays is to switch off the crazed expectation that the entire time will be fabulous and appreciate that holidays bring their own stresses and strains. Their purpose isn't simply about feeling good, but about disrupting habits and routines and and allowing for new things to develop.

I did notice that the trip seemed to shift gears in the third week, with a sense of really having decompressed fully and forgotten London more completely.

Viv mentions my visit and her own holiday, and shares her own reflections that perhaps holidays are a chance to get out of our own way. I like that notion on more than one level.