Hello from 30,000 feet.
As I write this, it's 1300 BST on Monday but my body clock is about as confused as Force India's Adrian Sutil appeared this weekend.
I'm not sure what's going on or where I am, to be honest, such are the effects of travelling across various time zones at all hours.
After another fascinating race weekend, we'll soon be landing in Paris, before our final leg to London and, a few moments ago, a few of the BBC team decided to do a little freshening up.
There were about five of us all lined up outside the claustrophobic plane toilet cleaning our teeth and I commented to one of the producers that we resembled a load of early morning students getting ready to head to lectures.
Now, people often ask how I ended up as a TV presenter, and the answer my Mum always hates me giving is that I failed my A-levels.
I must quickly provide the caveat at this point that I did indeed return to Norwich's Hewett High School for an extra year and emerged with decent grades in English, Politics and Psychology (the middle one is particularly handy working in F1!).
However, it was while retaking my exams that I started doing work experience at Anglia TV, which led to a job earning around �5,000 a year. Then it was on to CBBC and eventually to standing next to Eddie Jordan and David Coulthard in the pit lanes of the world.
Quite a story, and I've been incredibly lucky. However, I do feel I've missed out on one element of life - being a student.
Thankfully, I think this job sometimes allows me to glimpse what life must be like living with a bunch of like-minded mates, enjoying work and play in not quite equal measure.
I guess the difference is that instead of the bus into Manchester it's a flight to Melbourne; in place of lectures, it's live TV.
However, many elements are the same, and this weekend was a bit like a student field trip as we tackled the mammoth journey to the the Yeongam circuit.
Caption: "The start-finish line at the Yeongam circuit rising high above the F1 drivers at the weekend Photograph: Getty"
The flight itself is no more arduous than to China or Japan; it was more the journey at the other end, really.
Recently new circuits have been near or even in big cities - Shanghai, Valencia, Singapore and soon Delhi. However, this certainly isn't the case in South Korea.
Imagine, if you can, Bernie Ecclestone announcing a Grand Prix in Middlesbrough.
Now, this is by no means a dig at the north-east, just a reference to the fact that 'Boro is about five hours by coach from London and an area more famous for shipbuilding and fishing than for its motorsport heritage. Just like Mokpo, the nearest town to the Korea International Circuit.
And that brings me on nicely to our home for the weekend.
Once we'd bumbled almost the entire length of South Korea we arrived at our 'love hotel' in Mokpo on the Yellow Sea coast.
Now, I'm not going to make another comparison here about student lifestyle. However, the 'Orange Motel' actually played quite a pivotal role in our weekend, and created quite a stir among the media.
The reason for the love hotels' existence is that young people in South Korea often stay at home until they are married and therefore need somewhere they can go for a little privacy.
Well, it seems love hotels make up most of the potential accommodation in Mokpo, so clearly business is booming!
Despite reports to the contrary, the rooms were clean, pretty normal and exactly what you need if looking for somewhere to simply grab a few hours' kip each evening.
One of our team, however, found an electric 'love chair' in his room, complete with diagrams on the wall. I'll leave the rest to your imagination.
The Koreans were incredibly keen to impress the world, and were quite unhappy about the perception generated in some quarters that these places were akin to brothels. So one evening I arrived back at the hotel to find a local Korean TV news camera crew were keen to come into my room and interview me about my experience.
Needless to say, I felt a little uneasy answering questions about whether we have love hotels in Europe, and the crew wanting to film me "looking natural" and "going about my business".
It was an educational weekend in a number of ways.
We are all so used to having total control of our lives that it can be a liberating experience to head to a foreign land and 'go with the flow'.
In Singapore, you could almost be in any modern city in the world, such is its lack of character as high-rise steel and glass buildings slowly eat up the structures that would have once defined it.
It's fair to say they're not averse to a sky-scraper or two in Korea, but it is also a country like no other I've ever visited, and one where you do feel you're getting a taste of a totally different culture.
There is very little English spoken, so meals are quite an exciting lottery, and our morning spent filming at a fish market was incredible.
Using the universal language of hand signals and smiles, we were able to film the piece we wanted and it was clear that the locals were definitely excited about the arrival of F1 on their shores.
Their education in the sport could do with a little work, though.
We were showing them pictures of the five title contenders and every time they pointed to any picture they said "Schumacher", such is the great man's global appeal still I guess.
It was also a new experience arriving at the circuit.
In the past few years perhaps new venues such as Abu Dhabi and Singapore have spoilt us somewhat; certainly I've never experienced any sporting venue as unfinished as this one getting the nod to host a global sporting event in front of millions.
There is no question that in time it will be great, and that the paddock and grandstands are impressive. What it really lacked, though, was anything that separated it from the rest.
Apart from the Far Eastern-looking bridge over the start-finish line, there was nothing that told of the local culture, or defined it.
It wasn't helped by being surrounded by flatlands as far as the eye could see. In fact, coming from a Fenland farming family, I felt quite at home.
However, the race was anything but flat.
I enjoyed our pre-race build up, but it does feel strange doing the show without one of the three amigos.
Because Eddie, David and I have only hosted Formula 1 with each other, it does feel there is a big part of the magic missing when one of us isn't there.
This season David has missed Spain and Korea, EJ wasn't in China and I was otherwise engaged for Japan. Come Brazil, though, we'll be reunited!
David was joining us live from a few thousand miles away at the McLaren HQ - we wanted to give an idea of the lengths to which teams go to ensure they are totally on top of all the possibilities when it comes to the race.
McLaren are among the teams who have a group of engineers following the race live from their factory, and feeding in advice live back to the engineers on the pit wall. And the way things unfolded, that proved to be invaluable as David gave us updates from the very heart of the team as he listened to the drivers' radio chatter in 'Mission Control' during a real race of attrition.
I was monitoring the comments from Chris Evans and many other F1 fans on my Twitter feed and it was clear that you guys were unimpressed by the delay at the start.
"Best cars, best drivers but they won't race in the rain?", "Shame on these guys, start the race and those who don't fancy it can pull into the pits," were just two of the comments. Many hundreds more were the same.
Martin Brundle said in commentary that perhaps F1 shouldn't bother with wet tyres any longer.
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Well, if you had pressed the red button after the show, we were lucky enough that Jenson Button joined us for around 15 minutes to discuss all kinds of elements of the race. We even rode onboard with him as he explained how similar the camera shot was to what he was actually seeing.
He confirmed that the visibility was almost nil, that he could hardly see his front wheels and he had to keep wiping his visor. At this point I must admit that there was next to no rain and it had only been drizzle for the previous 30 minutes. So what was the problem?
Later that evening I spoke to the race director Charlie Whiting, who confirmed the problem was visibility as opposed to the amount of rain falling.
One could assume that, having never run a test weekend, perhaps the circuit wasn't quite ready for its wet weather baptism.
Mind you, the conditions did make for a corking grand prix once that action started.
Mark Webber touching the paint, kissing the wall and then being crunched into by Nico Rosberg meant it was all eyes on leader Sebastian Vettel.
Before long we reached three-quarters race distance, which meant full points were awarded and Webber was no doubt thinking of his team-mate snatching all 25 points and the championship lead.
Meanwhile, Lewis Hamilton had jumped Fernando Alonso at the pit stop and then lost it at Turn One, while Button was engaged in his own titanic struggle. He revealed live on the F1 Forum that he was running a different set-up to Hamilton that didn't seem to help.
I was watching the race unfold with EJ at McLaren as that was due to be our Forum location. Jenson's team were sinking lower in their chairs as he was fighting it out with the back-markers, while Lewis had others on the edge of their seats. It was incredible to watch the differing emotions within a team.
How were your emotions when Vettel suddenly slowed, Alonso skipped past and the impotent RB6 pulled to the side?
That moment cost Vettel 32 points and the championship lead. Why 32? Well, in that one moment he lost all 25 of his, and gifted 7 extra, vital points to Alonso.
What a season Alonso could have for Ferrari.
He won his first race, the Italian GP and could now become the fourth Ferrari driver since Fangio, Jody Scheckter and Kimi Raikkonen to win the title for Ferrari in his debut season.
I guess we'll find out what unfolds in two weeks' time at Interlagos - and you don't need me to remind you what has happened in Brazil the past five seasons. Will the title be decided there again?
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/jakehumphrey/2010/10/my_fascinating_and_educational.html
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