Finally the mystery surrounding my trip to Zimbabwe has been cleared, at least partially, with the arrival of a travel itinerary and a brief email from Basil about what I’m to be expected to do. The story begins about three months ago (March 2001), when a business contact in Zimbabwe asked me if I would like to spend some time with his company. I had never met him, and our only connection was through my mother, so I thought it remarkably trusting of him to assume I would be of any use to his business.

So having agreed to travel to the other side of the world for two months at someone else’s expense and do something which, to put it mildly, I may find challenging, I now need only to call Air Zimbabwe and have them send me the tickets.

This years trip, so organised, couldn’t be more of a contrast to my Australia trip last summer, which was so meticulously planned so far in advance that virtually nothing was left to chance (although not everything went according to plan). I now have no idea what lies ahead in the next two months. Still, at least I’ll miss most of Big Brother 2.