Thanks for all the concerned emails and phone calls from friends tracking me around the globe, although I am quite far from the recent earthquake in China. Hong Kong, where I am right now, was unaffected by the tremors.

My thoughts and prayers go out to my friends and the people in and around Szechuan Province in China. A friend of a friend of mine who lives in Chengdu captured the moment the earthquake struck on video, while in the mountains outside Chengdu, and the BBC is now showing the footage here.

It is a terrible tragedy in a very beautiful part of the world. Please consider making a donation to the Red Cross to assist the victims of this disaster.