I only had a vague idea of the lay out of Scandinavia. My Swedish gallerist told me that I could easily drive from Stockholm to Oslo where I had a gallery to visit and then on to Stavanger on the West coast of Norway from where I could fly home to London. He booked the air tickets and arranged the hire car. These days when I make an exhibition abroad I tend to do it as quickly as possible so as not to loose a whole week's work and to be back in time for the weekends when I see my eldest daughter. I get flash images of towns like Vienna or Chicago, spending more time in airports and galleries than looking around. Once decided it hadn't been too hard to keep a week clear of meetings and commitments

Apart from bringing lots of camera equipment I hadn't done much preparation for the trip. I had charged all the cameras in the hotel room in rotation using the only adapter plug I had. I managed to lose my mobile phone on the last night in Stockholm after the public opening of my exhibition (there had been a private sit down dinner in the gallery the night before) so the sense of cutting off was more complete. At the last minute the car hire company upgraded me to a Saab station-wagon, an ugly but fast, comfortable car. I had to pick up my luggage from the hotel on the way out of town but on parking, found that I couldn't remove the key from the ignition. It was only when I later drew up next to an identical car at a traffic light that I was told that you have to be in reverse gear to get the key out. I had a simple map of Sweden from the car hire office but only took vague notice of the route as I felt I had plenty of time to get to Oslo. As soon as I could I left the motorway and started to meander West along smaller roads stopping when the view opened up

A couple of years ago I flew over Sweden and Norway on the way back from the Far East where I had been working and holidaying with my family for a few weeks. The Northern landscape looked very different, from where we had been, it was rugged and dramatic. I was struck by how wild and beautiful it looked from above, I imagined myself down there, driving along the tiny winding roads through the forests and alongside the fjords. I determined to try to arrange a trip one day, but I often decide that kind of thing and never do it like the trip to the Pyramids or the Sahara