IN THIS FEATURE Not a bad incentive Corporate-looking Bedouin camp Crossing continents More to fast cars than just being fast Groundhog Day

10.00am Friday 10th February
This must be Groundhog day: heading back to Dubai for more fun and games in the desert only this time I'll be driving a Porsche Cayenne Turbo S with rather more than twice the power of the Volvo I drove here three weeks ago.

5.00pm Saturday 11th February
A brilliant day charging through the desert in the Cayenne. This is so clearly the car's natural environment I cannot think of anything else on sale that would be as capable out here. How will it be on bumpy, rain strewn British roads, lanes and streets? Completely over the top and unnecessary I suspect.

1.00pm Wednesday 15th February
The final entry in the diary finds me in southern Spain at the Jerez racetrack seeing how sideways I can get a BMW Z4M without actually spinning it. It's a badly flawed car but with a superlative engine and ultra-indulgent chassis, I can't hold a grudge against it too long.

Southern Spain, and a Z4M. It's a tough life, eh?

At times during this month I've found myself whinging down the telephone to my wife about jet-lag, check-in queues, sleepless nights, airline food, delayed flights, long term car parks and, on occasion, exhaustion I suspect borders on the clinical. To which her unfailing response has been to tell me to shut up and thank God I have the best job anyone with talents as limited as mine could score. She's right of course. Re-reading the above, I don't suppose I'm going to figure too high on anyone's list of people to feel sorry for in this or any month. Nor should I. Whinge I might but not a day goes by, let alone a whole month when I don't appreciate this job, give thanks for it and pray I'm allowed at least a few more years, or preferably decades, doing it.