Martin Hesp on Saturday

Read Martin’s column every week in the Western Morning News

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ANYONE who read this column last week will know that I've been travelling abroad, and you can see the results of my hot, sweaty, tropical labours in today's Hesp Out West pages. The one thing you won't read about there is the fact that I managed to bring some of the hot sweatiness back home with me. For days this week I've been lying in bed feeling more hot and sweaty than I did during ten long days in Sri Lanka.

Karma. That's what you can put it down to. I realise it's a not a medical term, but it does perhaps explain the dreadful lurgy that’s laid me very low.

Why karma? Because I am a selfish and forceful blighter who perhaps deserves some kind of comeuppance. In this particular case the karma is related to the fact that I cannot stand travelling in any kind of back seat so always - without exception - grab the front seat whenever I’m being driven anywhere. In the case of the recent Sri Lanka trip it meant I hogged the front seat of a bus carrying a dozen British travel writers from one end of the island to the other. Which was perhaps selfish of me. In my defence, I get really travel sick if I do sit anywhere else - and I'd also point out that most journalists spend hours on their phones or laptops rather than looking out of a mini-bus window when they're on press trips. I, on the other hand, never tire of gazing out at the passing humanity and scenery and make great efforts to absorb all I see.