I am in a really good mood today for a number of reasons. I feel as though a weight has been lifted from my shoulders at work as now much of the planning for the next few weeks of (albeit gruelling) travelling has been done. My world tour starts in the USA, pauses briefly in the UK, then on to Spain, Germany, Thailand and France – then hopefully a few weeks of relative sanity at home. Phew – I think that’s enough travelling for even the most ardent of adventurers.

My resolve to try not to let this schedule depress me is firm. I’d rather be at home but it can’t be so I’m going to make the most of this epic journey. If I stop to think about it for a single moment I know I’ll become morose, possibly suicidal and certainly tearful so I’m going to block it from my mind and get myself some good books for all those plane journeys.

We’re just about there with our trip to Philly for the Flower Show…..well, I say that, it’s true to say all the logistics are done but the truth is I’ve been doing an ostrich about the paper – I’ve just stuck my head in the sand about it so I expect that, much as would happen to an ostrich, I’ll get my arse shot too!!! I just can’t muster the will to sort my pics and I don’t have enough technical know-how to prep them optimally for projection onto a big screen. I am going to have to enlist DM’s help with all of this and I just can’t face it tonight. I know I’m going to have to bite the bullet soon but one more night without worrying about it is important to me today.

I’ve also been on the road today to see an old favourite client about a brief for a project and that’s always a pleasure – mind you, the trip was strange – really strong sunshine all the way there and four hours later, the same stretch of the M25 was gripped by snow. Really strange.

Lastly, my ever-increasing fondness for that ‘cheeky chappie’ Jamie Oliver has taken another upturn today – I’ve heard him on Radio 4’s Food Programme talking about school meals and describing the efforts he is making to increase the standard. There is also another group in Scotland doing a similar exercise.

Some of what I heard, I found deeply frustrating, such as the EC rule that the council tenders are not allowed to say the food must be locally produced because it’s anti-competition, despite the obvious benefits both to local agriculture and to the children themselves. The council concerned still chose their supplier on the basis of proximity and now the children of the Scottish Highlands are eating locally reared fresh meat, rather than frozen meat – good for the council, I say.

Last year at school, for me, was in an unbelievably horrible establishment (and not just the school dinners), Queenmead School in South Ruislip, where the fodder on offer each day had obligatory chips. Hilariously, you were allowed to leave your chips or your pudding but not your meat. Even though I wasn’t veggie then I still felt very uncomfortable with meat and so I used to hide my meat under the jam tart or whatever disgusting alternative ‘pudding’ was on that day so I could get away with not eating it and then stuff my face with chips. Amazingly, I was as thin as a rake until I was well over thirty, when my exercise levels went right down so for me there was never any question of childhood obesity, even on a daytime diet of chips, chips and more chips and nothing much else. (Of course I ate better stuff at home.)

So, to hear of school canteens with ‘proper’ food (unprocessed), no chips on the menu and only occasional pizzas etc seems like a huge leap forward for our nation’s kids.

Hearing this in the aftermath of the latest food scare to hit us has brought me joy and hope for the future, at least someone is taking the nutrition of children seriously. The list of foods found to have the carcinogenic chemical Sudan 1 is still increasing and the Food Standards Agency seems to be implying there will be more things added to it for weeks yet – I checked it out last night and was very pleased that it was all highly processed stuff that we just don’t buy.

Jamie really ‘cuts the mustard’ in my world and so here is a cheese and wholegrain mustard sauce as a celebration of his good sense – it is about to go onto cauliflower and broccoli cheese. Yum.

Last year our adventure was 'hotting up' and being helped along by a real babe!!!