I have had a number of enquiries about the brief hiatus in output. While travelling has been one factor, with consequent vast improvements in Mandarin and Farsi, the main cause has been the permanent relocation from Madrid to London.
It’s been some 17 years since I last lived in the UK, and I’m looking forward to lopping four hours off the commute to Tokyo, Singapore and New York (Madrid has plenty of direct flights to South America but few other places).
A mighty mass of brick, and smoke, and shipping, Dirty and dusty, but as wide as eye Could reach, with here and there a sail just skipping In sight, then lost amidst the forestry Of masts; a wilderness of steeples peeping On tiptoe through their sea-coal canopy; A huge, dun cupola, like a foolscap crown On a fool’s head–and there is London Town.
– Lord Byron