Back home.......

I got back from a week long visit to India this afternoon and am pumping this out before my eyes give up the ghost and close for twelve hours. I have had the most exhausting week I can remember and for once feel all of my years.
I took on a new role on 1st April with responsibility for a number of key IT suppliers based in India and this was the kick-off visit to meet the senior representatives and try to set some expectations. Apart from a ten day holiday in Goa many years ago, this was my first trip to India proper.
We flew into Chennai or Sunday and arrived at at our hotel at 4am with a 10.30 start. That set the tone for the week and we left our hotel in Bangalore yesterday at 3am local time and arrived back at Heathrow 13 hours later. 
More on India another time but I arrived back to find the anticipated hung parliament and the uncertainty of our play-off fixtures and opponents. It's looking like David Cameron and that wrong-un, George Osborne, are going to get their soft hands on the tiller, albeit with a humiliating set of concessions to a Lib-Dem Party who actually managed to lose their share of seats in spite of all the hype following the Leadership debates. Labour strengthened their grip in Greenwich and I have to say I'm not too unhappy about that despite not being a natural Labour voter. Nick Raynsford is a decent MP and it's hard to really complain the performance of our Labour Council in the last few years. Millwall-supporting Clive Efford held off the Tories in Eltham and I am pleased for him too. Another bloke who's pretty straight and who I couldn't vote against irrespective of my politics. In the circumstances, Gordon Brown's calamitous microphone error may well have cost him his job as PM because Labour did better than I expected.
I'll be listening in at Boundary Park tomorrow but the scores from Elland Road and the New Den will be of more immediate interest. I am expecting both to win, so our aim tomorrow should be the three points to avoid Millwall in the two-legged first round.
I will doze off tonight in a happy state, especially now that I know Jacqui Smith has finally had her comeuppance. Her unemployment will provide some relief for her long-suffering husband. My only hope is that she's out of work for as long as the average voter in her former constituency.