It was about 74,000 years ago that a volcanic explosion tore a gash sixty miles wide into a section of the Indonesian island of Sumatra. It was phenomenally loud and violent, spewing an estimated 670 cubic miles of rock and ash into the sky (compare this to the well under one cubic mile that the Mount St. Helens eruption threw up in 1980).

This is the only information in an email I received from a friend recently – yep, it said JUST that. Do I ever! I’ve never been further east than Prague so yes, I’d love to go to Moscow. A friend of mine has a consumer exhibition running end of September so pretty much told me all expenses would be paid. Which makes the email now even more exciting.