LOVE ON THE ROAD

THIS WEEK ZOË'S WORRIED THAT THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE HOME

I'm homesick. I feel like a spoilt brat even for thinking it, let alone saying it out loud. We're so lucky to be travelling for a year, but it's been more than three months now and I just wish I could teleport myself home for a day or two.

There's so much that I miss, but these are the things I crave the most: our comfy king-size bed; watching the new series of The Apprentice; returning from 
 Saturday morning run to Train Man's scrambled eggs on toast; running without being chased by dogs; meeting my friend Esther in Starbucks for a 'coffee' (but really having a caramel Frappuccino); chocolate that doesn't taste of plastic; sitting in my sister's kitchen trading celebrity gossip; reliable broadband; my baking tins; not having to haggle; TopShop...

I know it's silly. But I lost it yesterday when we arrived in Hanoi to yet another windowless hotel room.

"Aren't you homesick?" I asked Train Man, trying to hide my wobbly bottom lip.

"Erm, not really," he replied.

"Don't you miss anything from home?"

"I suppose I miss my Paul Smith cardigan," he said. Hanoi has been cold, but I wasn't sure if Train Man was feeling chilly, or is just a better traveller than me.

The best tonic for homesickness is a little piece of home, and it's on the way as I write. Our friends Liz and Simon are on a plane somewhere over the Middle East, bringing magazines full of gossip, Cadbury's chocolate and, best of all, themselves. We're going on a motorbike tour across northern Vietnam together, and having seen how people drive here, I'm guessing I'll be too terrified even to think about home…

Miles travelled: 818

Terse sentences exchanged: 0

Pining for The Apprentice?: Very much so

Next week: Zoë draws the line at a Vietnamese delicacy