Backdated: Friday 19th March 06:28

I’ve learnt a few tricks concerning long journeys and laptop batteries. For example, have the display on brightness level one, and turn it down to zero whenever you need to take a few minutes gulping the sweet cold air of the overhead fan. You know, those nozzle things you have to twist vainly in the hope that it’ll produce an instant blast of Being Outside, but in fact it just vaguely chills your right ear. The thing is, a coach full of people is basically an airtight box containing a lot of carbon units busy turning oxygen into carbon dioxide and water vapour. That’s why you’re so glad of the nozzle, but that comes from the intake grill at the front of the coach or, in other words, from the exhaust pipe of the car in front. This has a bracing few percent of carbon monoxide, which is a colourless, tasteless gas that causes drowsiness, nausea and death. I’ve been thinking a lot about gas balances these last few days.

I’ve also been getting a deeper insight into the New Adventures in Hi-Fi album which, as anyone who knows the album will attest, is musically satisfying, but very bad news for me as a happy human being.

Song in my head: “E-Bow the Letter” by REM