Heather Fell, Olympic modern pentathlete silver medalist, writes about her life 'on and off' the track.

EARLIER this month in a weak moment I accepted an offer to a Burns night supper as at the time I had a rare space in my diary.

I stupidly didn't take in the location of this supper, I just heard 'near London' - in my mind that would be somewhere to the west of the city. It turns out that the home county of Suffolk might be close to London but it is certainly not close for anyone travelling from our part of the world.

The prospect of driving for a total of eight hours (and only if the weather behaved) was enough for me to consider public transport. I soon forgot that idea; it would have involved four separate legs including a rail replacement bus and was going to cost far more than my fuel. Having poor rail links in the South West might seem incredibly frustrating but it seems that heading east it gets no easier.

It might have been more appropriate to be heading north to celebrate a Scottish poet but I found my way across to the other side of the UK, the furthest east I have ever been.

The food was one aspect that certainly remained true to the Burns heritage. I had two new culinary experiences; haggis and a deep-fried Mars bar. The former being surprisingly pleasant, as for the Mars Bar well my arteries are still recovering!

Times readers can be updated on what Heather is up to via?her social networking site twitter:heatherfellnews