I say a little prayer

Two egg omelette please, no chilli

Things don't feel quite so negative around here after a reasonable night's sleep. Maybe it was the locally distilled whisky that that put me on a downer last night. I was certainly not very happy before going to bed

I'm stuck here without being able to work because the materials I need to trial in local factories are held in customs in Dubai. The courier we used to send the samples claims they have been with customs for extra security checking for around a week and there's no sign of them being cleared at the moment. If they have not been sent overnight my only real course of action is to bring Friday's return flight forward and go home, because I'm currently sat twiddling my thumbs in the hotel. A highly frustrating situation!

Last night I met an old friend here who I haven't seen for maybe three years. He hadn't changed a bit (and claimed I hadn't), and we had a lovely hour or two drinking tea and reminiscing. His son, who I met once before and who was then a teenager, is now a manager in a local communications company and doing well for himself

This morning I have been down for breakfast and had an omelette. It's very common for Asian hotels to have an 'egg chef' and the one here was very busy today not only doing omelettes but also turning out some very tasty looking scrambled eggs too

Bangladesh is five hours ahead of the UK and I am going to sit outside on the terrace for an hour or two and maybe go to the gym before contacting the office to see if any progress has been made with delivering our samples. I've been to the gym four times since leaving home (every other day) but seem to be coming down with a cold now, which might make my session on the treadmill even harder than normal. Perhaps some chilli in my omelette would have helped sweat out the cold and been a good thing after all!

Eddie Cochran

The Bangladesh leg of my trip to Asia has fallen foul of logistical problems. I suspect there's a more than even chance I will be leaving the country earlier then planned, and before I have achieved what I set out to do. In fairness, this is through no fault of my own

Pizza and local whisky have been taken this evening in the hope of making things feel better, albeit with little success. At times like this rock 'n' roll has often found to be the only solution

On a more positive note I got word from an old colleague earlier this evening announcing the birth of his first child, which is great news. I'm about to retire in the hope that further good news will be received tomorrow

Horace Andy

Original vocal plus a dub from King Tubby. I love how the voice drifts ethereally in and out of the mix

Moving on

I'm in what used to be the Sheraton hotel in Dhaka after arriving around midnight last night (the hotel has been taken over since I last stayed here and is now called the Ruposhi Bangla). I flew Shanghai to Kuala Lumpur and on to Dhaka with Malaysia Airlines yesterday. The first time I came to Asia it was for a couple of days stop-over in Kuala Lumpur around ten or eleven years ago on the way to Australia for a holiday. I fell in love with Asia instantly. The heat, the humidity, the noise, the food; even the air smelt exotic to me. It might sound trite but it was life-changing in a way. It's a real shame that when you depart an airplane now more often than not you walk straight into an air-conditioned corridor. I miss walking down the steps and onto the hot tarmac! 

China was okay. The exhibition went well and the hotel I stayed in was great. The only problem I had apart from the usual language barrier was feeling isolated and lonely. It was particularly difficult this time because Stef had her operation on Tuesday and so began her recovery while I was away. I'll never forget waiting for a text from her dad to say she was alright and out of the operating theatre. I was wandering around the hotel wondering what to do with myself for what seemed like hour after hour

Blogger and YouTube are blocked in China which added to the sense of isolation but I did manage to get to the gym three times in five days. I checked out the gym here after breakfast and it looks good. There's a sauna, which I thought was ironic. It's 30degrees plus outside, the hotel air-con seems to be set to 17degrees all over the building but if you want you can get a sauna!

Cold cold ground

Hanging round

I'm hanging round the Emirates business lounge at Dubai airport. I've got a flight to Shanghai in a couple of hours and will be there until next Friday. After that it's on to Dhaka, Bangladesh for a week. I've been to China a few times in the past but to be honest it's not my favourite country for business. Generally very little English is spoken, which makes meetings difficult and the food is not great either, although Shanghai is better than Guangzhou in the South. Two weeks will no doubt fly by however and before I know it I will be back here on the way home again

People get ready

The Saturday boy

Probably my favourite Billy Bragg song

The Turkey, Goose Eye

The Turkey at Goose Eye is a regular on our list of Wednesday night pub runs but for some reason I think I'd only ever been there once before last night. The run was tough but I enjoyed it and felt better than I have for weeks while running, I think mainly because the weather was cool. We did six miles and maybe 800ft of climb

We're down to the last handful of pub runs now before we revert to the White Lion on Wednesdays. It was becoming dark as we dropped back down to the car park last night and it'll be time to dig the headtorchs out soon