A nice pudding will cheer me up after holiday hell

It has been pretty awful and I've been counting down the days until we get home. Aside from the beach, there's not a lot to do. There's only so often you can go to the markets here and buy fake watches and handbags.

It's a bit of a shame as we don't get a lot of time off during the season and realistically my next holiday probably won't be until next October. The one consolation is that I've heard a rumour that my new team, Garmin, are planning a meet and greet in the Cayman Islands for five days in December, so I might get my winter sun then.

But I can't really complain. It has been a great season for me and Adam [Blythe], who got some big wins towards the end of the year. Maybe our luck for the year just ran out when it came to our holiday?

We're flying back today and tomorrow I've got to empty the contents of my flat in Belgium into my car and drive back to England. I should get home in time for my mum's roast dinner. I'm a vegetarian but my mum still tries to include me in them. She normally comes up with some concoction that involves loads of shredded cheese on top of it — sometimes it works and sometimes it fails spectacularly.

I've also got a meeting in Manchester with the Team GB coach about my track programme for the winter but, while I'm back home, I'm going to make sure to enjoy myself a little bit as I'm in danger of turning into a robot if I don't. It's not like I'll be going out for loads of drinks.

For me, the way of letting my hair down tends to be eating more — a few more puddings here and there.

On reflection, the last few weeks have been a bit crazy. Firstly, I had the World Championships in Australia where I went with the target of finishing inside the top 10 so I was pretty chuffed with ninth.

Next up was the Commonwealth Games where I won silver in the road race. My family told me off afterwards, saying: "Why can't you cheer up in interviews a bit?" The fact is I was disappointed with the silver and always will be.

I should have won a gold medal. I firmly believe I thought too much in the sprint. Sprinting is a very instinctive thing and I just know when to go unless I think too much, which is what I did in Delhi in the final 500 metres — and it was the thinking that cost me.

Don't get me wrong, a silver at a big Games is a great thing but it's tough to take when you think you should have won the race.

Delhi was an incredible experience. I was a bit scared when I arrived there because of all the reports we had heard and read and that wasn't helped by our training rides — we were taken out in armoured vehicles to a stretch of road where there were armed guards every 50 metres.

But on the whole the Commonwealths lived up to their billing as the Friendly Games'. Everyone just had a smile on their face the whole time and, from my perspective, it was the perfect preparation for 2012.