How weird to be wearing shoes, socks and even boxer shorts after 15 months in the tropics, but returning to Europe has been fun… and Dublin is a great city.

I had a keynote speech to make at the Futureproof conference so went for the age-old strategy of winging it and managed to talk for 20 minutes without a script and it seemed to go well. Lively panels followed and the network drinks were great. I met one particular insane man who I think I’m going to know for a long time.

For some reason I have Ireland in my heart. Let’s just say I’ve got more Brendan Behan and Seamus Heaney in me than PG Wodehouse and Martin Amis, and returning to Europe hasn’t been as daunting as I thought.

Tonight it’s the Irish Video Awards and then a very earlier flight via Dubai (if it’s still there) to Goa and then back to my Bollywood film where I’ve found that I have been promoted to Major Johnson, not Captain Farrell, and have a significantly larger role in the movie.

So it’s all looking good, but that’s when the wicked witch is at her most dangerous and I’m likely to be knocked down by a tram at St Stephen’s Green in 20 minutes’ time.

But before that happens I’m going to walk through Trinity College, buy some books, have a pint of Guinness and have my own mini-Bloom’s Day thinking of Joyce and poetry before I return to be the relative Playboy of the Eastern World.