I'm still at my desk but will shortly be going home to complete my packing befroe setting off on holiday tomorrow.  When I first became a Pro-Vice-Chancellor the then Vice-Chancellor, Bob Boucher, told me that he wanted me to take three weeks' leave as a block each year.  He argued that he wanetd his senior team to have a 'proper' holiday.  And his argument was that if you take only a week off no one will cover any work for you, two weeks and some will get done but not all.  But with three weeks off other people have to take over significant elements of the day-to-day business - and that colleagues may appreciate more what it is that you do when you really are there.

Actually, many people now find it difficult to switch off when on holiday - in part because we all carry smart phones that can be used to read our e-mails wherever we are in the world (although often at a price).  At one time we were almost completely out of contact whilst on holiday - now many people find it difficult to restrain themselves from staying in contact. I will confess that, befroe I had a smart phone, I could occasionally be found in internet cafes abroad, just checking on the NSS results, or the post A level recruitment position or some other piece of information.  And it's that last word that is the problem: we don't like being without information - even if there's not much we can actually do with it. 

So, I will try to restrain myself over the next two and a bit weeks (I'm not taking as long away as I was told - A level results week beckons).  But I suspect that at some point I will yield to temptation, when no one else can see me, and will switch on international roaming and download e-mail. 

There will only be two blogging days in August beacsue of my holiday - 15th and 22nd.