The It's Nice To Go Travelling Post.

In 1975, I went to my mum's homeland of Nevis with her and her by-now-estranged sister (long story and one I'm not going to go into here). Dad told me last week that I wrote to him all the time begging to come home. Having been back there over the past two weeks, I believe him.

A few facts about Nevis; it's small. Very small - only 35 square miles, and so titchy it's allied to its next-door neighbour St. Kitts. (Not that it's the only small island in this part of the Caribbean - you can see Anguilla from the place as well.) It's also very hilly; no matter where you go you can see the big mountain in the middle of the island, and good luck going anywhere without having to go uphill or down dale. Oh, and did I mention my uncle used to be the premier?

True. Uncle Vance's party was kicked out in 2006, and the new people in charge haven't done as good a job - according to Mum, and the frequent power cuts and water shortages certainly back her up (you have to buy even more bottled water here than you do in London, amazingly). Gah. But hey, at least I can claim to have a relative with an airport named after him (Vance M. Amory International Airport). And no matter where we went, there always seemed to be somebody we were related to... flipping heck, getting married there must be tricky.

On the downside, it was very quiet there (well, apart from all the loud music occasionally - and guess who didn't bring any of his own stuff along? You guessed it, muggins here! So no escape from the musical offerings of Voice Of Nevis, the soundtrackings of the people plugging mobile network Digicel, etc... thank goodness for YouTube in general (and Randy Edelman's NFL theme and Hayden's music video in particular) or I'd have snapped!). A bit too quiet, in fact... I'm not a country person. It suits plenty of people, true (visiting the Botanical Gardens for lunch, I talked briefly with a Jerry Springer-lookalike who'd moved there from New York - the pace suited him fine, and to each his own), but me, I'm a city boy. Or at the very least a suburban boy.

On the upside, it was with family... and there ain't nothing wrong with being around your parents and sisters. At the end of the day you need some people, and I do love them. (Also on the upside, I got to see most of Cindy Crawford's Meaningful Beauty infomercial on TV Guide Network. And CNN's Soledad O'Brien and Kiran Chetry...)

IN MEMORY OF: My being unspoiled for season 3 of Heroes. Darn you, Hayden Panettiere, for being such a fox... why couldn't Ali Larter, Dania Ramirez (yes, she's back) and Kristen Bell be the only women on the show? Then I wouldn't be so compelled to Google all the damn time.