Assuming all is well I am on my way into the west — New York, that is. I leave behind my stalwart pirate crew whom I will be missing a lot. Having an early flight I had to leave the night before and stay in a windowless budget hotel (well, I could have stayed in some fancy hotel but that would cut into my limited budget for the coming months of travel as well. This half salary malarkey has its limits). My sweetie has a toothache, so I feel bad for him — and sad to be leaving just now, too.

A lot of people think it’s strange and that I ought to settle in one place or the other. Chance would be a fine thing, I tell them.

Unless I hit the lottery or something akin to it (i.e. a book that sells enormously, for which the odds are perhaps even longer) this is my reality. Two homes: my heart in Scotland, my job in New York. It could be worse. I am enormously lucky in so many ways.

But I will be missing my pirate crew a lot.

These guys will probably do their best to cheer me up. See you on the other side.