When I started travelling in the 1980s, I used to send my parents a postcard from wherever I stopped. Often they would reach home long after me. Once the Internet became available, we taught my mom to use it so that she could keep in touch with my travels. She was proud of what I was doing, but always frightened that something terrible would happen to me. To the end of her life, her standard reply on hearing that I had just won another project was “Oh dear”.

After my father died (and therefore gained the Internet handle of “Heavenly Dude”), my mom became the Big Chief. My travel stories thus become “Emails to the Big Chief”.