Tomorrow I'm heading off to Rubha Fiola - an island off the West Coast of Scotland. I'll be gone for a week. It's my final school trip with a group of children I've been going away with for three years now. They're all turning twelve. They're wild and they talk too much but they're also very resourceful and up for a good time. We've been all over the UK together - Dorset, Wales, Lake District and Norfolk. Now it's Scotland's turn. There's no electricity on this island. Living quarters are primitive. Forecast is rain...

Never mind. I can't lose a whole week of writing so I'm taking my printed out manuscript, a notebook and pen and - some optimism.

See you in a week.