Infelicities of timing

At about half-past twelve today, I went to the travel agents to sort out the remaining details for my round-the-world trip.

Approximately three minutes after I confirmed a booking at a hotel on Kuta Beach, Bali, BBC News started announcing that a bomb had gone off in Kuta.

I hope that this merely means that, when I get there, the hotel-owners and miscellaneous providers of servers to tourists will be even more pathetically grateful to my group for having deigned to come to their beautiful island.

I fear, however, that the Australians will declare Bali to be irredeemably dangerous, and Intrepid Travel, the Australian tour operator with which I'm travelling, will cancel the tour. Though this is not really to be feared; at worst it obliges me instead to go to Melbourne or Perth for a fortnight, and pay a small supplement for the extra flight time.