There is a little BlackBerry buzz in my pocket as I put my key in the door after flying sleepless overnight from Washington. Are you happy with the eleven podcasts, the message asks, and can we do a synopsis for each? She must have a trip-wire or something to tip her off that I am home. Oh, and by the way, she adds, don’t forget the article you promised. It is just as well they are asleep in Singapore, or there would be a message asking for my slides for my presentation there next week.

I have brought back four or five draft articles about Washington and the excellent Masters Conference there, ranging from one which needs only its hyperlinks added through to others which consist merely of scrappy notes on paper or in my head. They range from idle chatter about the US-UK e-discovery scene to serious stuff about sanctions and the UK practice direction. I also have a white paper to start, the blurb for a video presentation to write, a pocket full of business cards to go through, 254 e-mails to file, a bill or two to render, a couple of potential sponsors to follow up, part of a book chapter to edit, a telephone interview to give, and a bag full of clothes to get ready for the next trip to Heathrow on Monday.

One of the advantages of being at conferences with the Senior Master, Queen’s Bench Division, Royal Courts of Justice, is that the organisers provide a big black car to take him to the airport. Master Whitaker and I were transported from the conference in some style, which made up for having had to go more or less straight from our panel session to the plane. If I have to wait around at an airport (and I think I might give Heathrow as my alternative office address) Dulles is the place to be. BA’s very comfortable Club Lounge, a smoking room, and Gate 44 for London are close to each other, and I can turn up just as the back of the queue reaches the gate, with my last espresso and B&H freshly consumed, my laptop and BlackBerry newly charged, the English papers read and some work done as well. Although I did not think that I slept, the flight seemed very short. Perhaps I just sink into comatose apathy; I will need all the comatose apathy I can raise for next week’s flights, when Master Whitaker and I reconvene in the Far East.

Deadlines usually seem to get met, more or less, so I daresay this lot will get done. Three foreign events bunched together throws the scheduling a bit, but relative peace descends after next week. What I won’t keep up with is the stream of good stuff which keeps coming up on Twitter – but anyone who wants to look can find it there, so I do not feel too guilty about that. With a new English case, Judge Facciola’s thoughts on eDiscovery sanctions, new steps forward in US-UK understanding, and the gossip floating around the UK market, there is more than enough to follow up in addition to the things I must do.

Some of that will appear here before I go.

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