510 - duration in minutes of the (direct) flight from LHR to SEA 0 (zero) - number of times my immediate neighbour left his seat to stretch his legs, visit the lavatory or chat with his friend in 37B. Truly impressive. 6 - number of times my neighbour politely declined offers of drinks or sustenance from the cabin crew 1029 - number of times the person behind found it necessary to delve into the back seat pocket for his copy of ‘High Life’, the sick bag or the In Flight Shopping magazine ...

Oracle have an interesting collaborative project (MegaGrid) to develop a very large grid database designed to stretch technical and infrastructure resources to the absolute limit. I also gathered from the informative US news media that a cat had been trapped up a tree in a Seattle suburb and that (shock, horror, gasp) the US Government has secretly been tracking all phone calls since 9/11. This appeared to be a big, breaking news story but seeing as US immigration took the trouble to take my fingerprints and photograph on entry to (and departure from) the US, I honestly didn’t think that the Homeland Security department would simply discard this data. ...

Maybe it’s just me but I have a slight unease about sitting next to a stranger who is reading email. Obviously, I try to avert my gaze but sometimes you can’t help but read the words on the screen, no matter how banal. Mind you, some people might consider it slightly rude to be even scanning email on a training course where the instructor is spending time and energy trying to teach you.

Kurt Cobain. Seattle. 8 April 1994. Cremated and ashes scattered into the Wishkah river. I vividly remember hearing the news of Kurt Cobain’s death. I was listening to the radio sitting in a hospital car park about to see my son who was born on the same day. One door closes. Another one opens.

I happened to be in Macclesfield at the weekend and went over to the Crematorium to see Ian Curtis’ plaque. I was never fortunate enough to ever see Joy Division live but I vividly remember returning from a United game and watching them perform ‘Transmission’ and ‘She’s Lost Control’ on a local TV program ‘Something Else’. Ian Curtis was a very ill man and hanged himself on the eve of a US tour. ...