Phew. Well, I've just returned home after an enjoyable two weeks in the States visiting relatives and friends in California and taking a vacation in Las Vegas and Arizona.  Apart from quickly using a PC at a hotel to pay a credit card bill, I managed to avoid using the internet at all for those 14 days - by far my longest exile from cyberspace since leaving university in 1997.  But you know what?  It was kinda enjoyable, relaxing, cleansing even to be offline for a period, not feeling obliged to instantly reply to dozens of daily incoming mails.