So my first trip to India turned out to be an unsuccessful one, when I had what they call an 'early bath' and headed home on Friday night. Four events played, two missed cuts, one top ten finish and an average week in Dubai was not the greatest of starts to the New Year. However, the one massive positive is that my back held up really well for the whole month, and that certainly is the most important thing to have come out of the extended trip.

On the course, my game was a big disappointment following two slightly better weeks. The Jockey and I had a good old laugh at least, when I made the most ridiculous birdie on the fourteenth hole on day one. From the fairway bunker I tried to knock a 3 iron onto the par five green, however, all I managed to do was knock it onto another hole behind a forest of very large trees. Fortune favours the brave though, so I just pitched the ball through a hole about a foot wide, twenty feet in the air, and low and behold the ball ran to about twelve feet. When I rolled the putt in the whole group was laughing. When I lost a ball off the tee two holes later with an iron, I was not.

What was India like, you may ask? I have to admit I didn't see much of it, but the trip did begin on a funny note when I was greeted by my driver, with a sign saying 'Lord David Howell'. Now that is a welcome. The Oberoi Hotel was first class, the golf course was superb and totally different to anything else we play all year, the food was great, and that's about as much as I know.

I think The Jockey knows a little more than I do about the poverty that is all too easy to see in parts of Delhi, as he had to slum it in The Crowne Plaza. Not only that, but in a twin room as well would you believe, as Muppet (Paul Hoskins, Trainer) made the very strange decision to come to India to work with myself and Graeme McDowell.

I would have thought six hours waiting to get a visa in the Indian Embassy on the day of travel would have been enough to put anyone off coming, but you know these trainer types - it's in their nature to overcome any obstacles in their way - so Muppet duly arrived in India in time to meet me on Tuesday evening. Wednesday, I was shattered so didn't do anything, Thursday, I was in a terrible mood so just moaned and asked him why on earth had he come to India anyway, and Friday, I missed the cut so worked out like Rocky before my flight. Then before we knew it, both Muppet and I were on a flight back home.

He's got the worst job of all I reckon - making people do things they really don't wish to do all day long, then flying around the world making me do things I really don't want to do all day long. Fair play to him, no matter how much abuse he takes, he still turns up to keep me on the straight and narrow. Still, he does seem to get some satisfaction when I manage to do my seven hundredth chin up - when we first started working out I could only manage five hundred and fifty in one session, so his help seems to be working.

Last week was spent partly relaxing and partly getting to work on the range at Queenwood. Jack the Back has given me the thumbs up again in terms of my back trouble, which is nice, and Mad Mary really is Mad after being called a Masseuse in a national newspaper. Boy, did she hurt me that day.

So for now the hard work continues, but I'm fully aware I have the best job in the world, plus I get to drive to work in my new Jaguar XF. Getting in that car reminds me how lucky I am, plus Manchester United beat Arsenal at the weekend so if you see or hear me moaning, feel free to give me a kick up the backside.