Where Am I? Where's All The Food?

I spent four hours lying in bed last night trying to work out the strategy for winning at blackjack. It got quite detailed. That was only four of the hours when I should have been sleeping.

Two more I spent reading. At least one was spent trying to remember the lyrics to 'Sweet Home Alabama'.

Another hour or so was spent on a rabid journey of imagination, wondering what would happen if a hotel refused to refund my money after I saw a rat in the room and refused to stay the whole night. I got quite angry about it.

And of course there was the half-hour when I was sitting up in bed with a plate of turkish bread and sweet chili sauce. Tasty. But, it turns out, not a cure for jetlag.

I've been in the USA for a couple of weeks - you might have noticed a lack of blogginess. There's a lot to think about. I'm going to portion it out slowly over the next few posts. Topics for discussion will probably include:

-American Food (and dining habits)
-Country Music
-Air Travel (especially United Airlines - there might a bit of a rant about this one)
-The Mall
-The Urban Boy's Guide to Cutting Cattle (or: 'Turns Out You Don't Need Scissors')

But for now, I just want to say a massive HI to everybody at the two schools I visited in California: Woodrose and Bentley. It was a treat to meet you all. Thanks for a whole load of fun. I hope you're enjoying my books!

Oh, a couple more future topics for discussion:

-The Differences and Similarities between American and English school kids
-The Differences and Similarities between American and English publishing of children's books (definitely a bit of a rant possible there)

The one topic I will definitely be avoiding is Jetlag and How To Get Over It.

Finally, a good old fashioned English HELLO to everyone at Cardinal Wiseman School in Greenford.

I was there today, experiencing the world through a zero-sleep haze. You can't really have made up a story that involved Thierry Henry's neice being in love with George Bush, killing her father with a microchip hidden in a fry up and maiming her best friend with a razor blade concealed in a Mars bar.

The stuff about the nuclear weapons in a frying pan dangling from a bridge - that I can believe. But Thierry Henry? Surely I imagined that...