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Of course it's just my luck that this trip coincides with the latest Al Qaeda threats to strike at Australian and UK interests and their employees.

Yes, that's right, I'm flying cattle-class with Qantas which, based on previous experience, could far and away be the biggest threat to my safety and wellbeing. But I'm not paying for the tickets and beggars can't be choosers.

Note: if someone from Qantas is reading this, I'd be sorely tempted to reconsider this opinion if you upgrade me to Business Class ;-)

It's also just my luck that the flights see me spending a little time in Singapore and Bangkok airports along the way -- at a time when people are dropping like flies from SARs.

Thanks to a borrowed laptop and some modern technology, it looks as if (fingers crossed) I'll be able to file daily updates while I'm away, albeit the time-zone differences may mean they don't appear at the usual hour.

And, to help alleviate the boredom, I've packed my trusty old pocket TV set and a nifty new MP3 player I picked up yesterday (I'll review this player while I'm away).

Of course this meant I had to spend time last night blatantly breaking NZ copyright law by ripping a whole bunch of my favourite (legally purchased) CDs and burning around 240 tracks onto a couple of CDRs in MP3 format.

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It looks as if I won't be trialing the Vodafone Live service -- my budget just couldn't stretch to $1K for a Sharp GX10 or similar top-end cellphone.

Instead I purchased the cheapest digital phone I could find to replace my aged old analogue beast. Turns out that this is a rather gaudy looking and very "plastic" Motorola that cost just $170.

After doing much research, it turns out that my bank balance is going to be a whole lot better off if I buy a pre-pay SIM card when I get to the UK instead of choosing to roam with my Kiwi SIM.

In fact it's amazing how cheap cellphone access is in the UK.

With four networks all competing for customers, peak calling rates even on prepay are as low as 5p (14c) per minute -- versus about $0.70-$1.40 cents a minute here in NZ.

Just about the only thing I've come up short on is a simple digital camera -- but that's probably not a bad thing. I've never been particularly impressed with the bottom end of the digital camera marketplace and it's a lot more expensive to carry a spare memory card than it is another roll of 35mm film.

With any luck, my next column will be filed from distant shores so stay tuned.

Although I may not have a whole lot of spare time, I'll try to get some insight into the UK IT/Net scene from users and people working in the industry while I'm there.

If anyone wants to contact me while I'm away, it might pay to use my alternative email address: dontspam at yahoo dot com, since, if my other options fail to work as planned, I can always check this mailbox from a cybercafe.

If any Aardvark readers have an opinion on today's column or want to add something you're also invited to chip in and have your say.

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