I had a productive week in Toronto and so was allowed the come home a day early. A few hours before the flight I heard that there was a strike at Heathrow, but my flight still seemed to be on. Nic and I got to the airport early to find that it had been delayed 24 hours! I'm not sure what was going on, but as well as the crowd of confused passengers there were lots of cops, TV cameras and then a couple of SWAT-type guys armed to the teeth.

We both managed to get transferred onto a Canadian Airlines flight that left an hour later than we were meant to. Unfortunately this meant travelling economy! At least it meant getting home that night. So I spent a short, uncomfortable night on an aging Airbus with no personal video screen (what's the world coming to?). I had been thinking of watching Hitchhikers on the BA flight.

Heathrow was busy when I got in, but at least I didn't have to wait in the huge non-EU passport queue and found my case as soon as I got to the casousel.

What could have been a nightmare was not too bad in the end. I'm back with my family again.

And big congrats to big Al on his first-born son.