Oh, I know, I shouldn’t be wasting time taking photographs of the sunset on the eve of our departure when I haven’t even finished packing yet (or started, for that matter!). Perhaps it’s my subconscious telling me not to bother packing many clothes because, after all, you never wear all the clothes you take – do you?

Somehow, whenever I go to Australia my English clothes look funny (as do my ghostly white legs); and my first thought is always to have a look in the sales, which are on at this time of year. I’ll pack just a couple of pairs of shorts (the ones that fit me) and after a few weeks of intense Queensland heat and dieting I’ll be into smaller ones; there will be a temptation to throw out the old big ones but I must remind myself that they will be required next year when my weight has gone back on again! And besides, my new Aussie gear (which looks so nice with brown legs) always looks rather odd and over-colourful back in England.

Well, I had better get cracking with the packing, even though I’m taking so little to Australia. Now the packing for the journey and the stop-over in Dubai is another story… and, of course, there is the London visit first… I am just going down to the bedroom and, like Captain Lawrence Oates, ” may be some time.”