The exact logistical requirements of a journey from my flat in London to my parents house in Ireland include a 2 hour bus ride, a 55 minute express train, an hour long flight (taken on a budget airline), a 30 minute airport bus transfer service followed by a three hour cross country train and finally an hour’s drive by car from the nearest train station to my destination; a remote island off the West Coast of Ireland. You see, 16 years ago, my parents made the rather contentious decision to live not in the middle of nowhere but on its outer fringes. The distance calculator widget on the website www.daftlogic.com informs me that – at a beeline – the distance between my London place and parental home is 441.185 miles (give or take). In it’s entirety, the journey between these two points took just over 14 hours. By my quick calculations, this results at an average travel speed of 31.5 miles per hour. Given that it generally takes just under an hour to travel the six miles to work each morning in London, I hold that the average velocity achieved whilst traveling to my folks is a figure of which I can be marginally proud. Of course, the time taken to calculate this figure was entirely facilitated by an extented period of boredom enjoyed while waiting for a plane.