At last, it can be revealed!

The reason for the blog outage over the last couple of weeks? I've been on holiday. I was going to say something, but the missus said that if I did, one of you might twig that our house was empty and burgle me. I know Mr Salmond covets my Heroclix collection, and that Big Dave F still hankers after that Tomb of Terror issue I borrowed off him in 1985 and never returned, so I decided to go with the woman's instinct and shutdown without explanation.

Anyway, I'm back now, just. We've been in the States and foolishly booked to return home on the day that the Icelandic volcano started spunking its load. The pilot told us that we probably wouldn't be taking off from Chicago but, after a 50 minute wait, he got word that we had a 10-minute window in which to get airborne. As we were approaching Blighty, he came on the intercom to let us know that we'd scraped into British airspace with four minutes to spare before the no-fly zone was enforced. Blimey. Apparently, and I shit you not here, we were the last plane to land at Heathrow. Having used up my luck then, I fully expect my next flight to end in a mid-Atlantic terrorist attack. Happy Days.

While I was away I read No Hero, (Warren Ellis Avatar book with lovely Juan Jose Ryp art), which was pretty good. Powr Mastrs Volume 1, by the mysterious and brilliant C.F., (as recommended by Hayley of Gosh! fame), which was a bad trip of a masterpiece. The Starman Omnibus vol 3. And, (drumroll), a book with no pictures: The City and The City, by China Mieville, (as recommended by Jared of Pornokitsch fame).

More on Powr Mastrs and The City and The City in future blog posts. For now, I'm off to shit out the remainder of the Twinkies, Hersheys and hamburgers I've been stuffing my face with for the last two weeks. Adios, web pals - look out for falling lava.