Restored communications

Contrary to rumours, I have not been set alight, the computer crash took on epic proportions, everything has had to be reinstalled and all files and software have been lost on this machine. And the damn scam of not providing an operating system disc with a Windows computer - unless you buy it separately of course - held things up. It is an old computer though and is about to join me in being pensioned off.

Now it is functioning again and posting will resume, just before I head back to England at the end of the week. In the meantime, I have been having fun discovering the remains of a long dead rat, destroying a wasps' nest, getting rid of cockroaches and other simple country pleasures. I have also been reading good books, eating gorgeous food and, sorry UK readers, basking in beautiful weather. The days have been hot and the nights cool enough to require a jumper as you sit out under a canopy of stars, sipping wine and watching the neighbours' cat climb up the vine and fall off onto the sunshade. Bucolic bliss.