It has been a strange week and not a very productive one blogging wise; this was only partly due to the fact that my internet connection was down again over the weekend. Internet is still in its infancy here and mountains and broadband have an uneasy coexistence; or maybe it’s just reluctance on the part of our telephone company to assure a trouble free service, for the meagre, dozen or so computer literate souls who live in our village.

The other exceptional event that has stopped me putting pen to paper, or finger to keyboard, was a good bout of gastric flu that struck down the whole family. I spent a day or so, crouched like a sprinter at the start of a race, examining French bathroom porcelain up close and then helping others to do the same. If I’m offending sensibilities here, I suspect that it probably has something to do with living with a farmer for 14 years. He told me recently that my conversation had finally sunk to a level that he could understand, and I’m starting to believe him