I've kept a journal on almost every trip I can remember, though it becomes more and more difficult to do so with kids. We bought small spiral notebooks for the boys and encouraged them (for the first few days at least) to make short journal-like entries as well, but we seem to hardly be able to find the time to sit down and write ourselves, let alone get them to do so, and that means that it's going to be hard for them to learn from example.

I had no problem conceptualizing the various technical problems that I might encounter in writing a column while away from home (examining these was, after all, the central purpose for writing this column as I originally conceived it) but I hardly devoted any thought to the social aspects of writing, the most obvious of those being simply when I might find the time to write.

And time is, at least in this particular universe, somewhat, or even highly, chronological. Many of the Boidem columns get written in bits and pieces, but this one in particular has been written as short entries that are at least partially related to the events of our trip. And that style, or at least order, of writing, exerts a great influence on the ultimate form of this particular column.

My brother has had experience in this sort of thing and has actually maintained a group tour website while visiting Israel, but this is more an example of an online journal rather than of an attempt to see the internet as a homebase and thus a place from which to work even when away from home. Though the first metaphor that comes to mind for this column is that of a trip journal, what I was interested in succeeding in doing was actually something quite different.

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