I had a long flight from London to Bangkok last week and, as usual, on long flights people tried to sleep some of the way. So the person in front of me reclined her seat as far as possible so that the video screen in the back of the seat was only a few inches from my face. I reclined mine as well. Immediately from the seat behind came an objection claiming that my seat was hitting her knees.

Syria may have been in the headlines for all the wrong reasons recently but don’t be deterred from visiting, for the reality is very different. Tourists have never been targeted and on arrival, you’ll be warmly greeted by locals looking to shed Syria’s international reputation. CD Traveller is seduced by the country’s capital…

This isn’t quite in the league of Hercule Poirot or Miss Marple but at least I can say this really happened.

At the moment I am in Australia and just back from 4 days in the southernmost state of Tasmania. (more in the Destinations section of Cd-Traveller shortly). We’d been down to a cheese making farm and decided to bring three different cheeses back to Sydney for the family to try. To keep it cool we had put the cheese in the hotel room fridge (yes I know you shouldn’t use fridges but we all do) along with some bottled water we had bought and some chocolate.