"Happy Time!"

This is the title of a book designed for pupils learning English in French primary schools. One of its editors, Pascale Spitz from Paris, is staying with us this fortnight, for one-to-one English tuition by Caroline. In between lessons, I have been trading the rules of cricket for new-to-me words and phrases such as le lait du coin; les locavores; les bobos; moi, ma vie, mon oeuvre, and n'importe quoi.

As the photograph indicates, cookery comes as part of the package. The cake was to honour another visitor, Leo's Godmother, also a teacher (in an inner-city school). And yet another teacher, now resident in Zimbabwe, came for lunch yesterday. So, over a sunny weekend there was plenty of time in the garden to reflect upon the hot topic of education as both a cause and remedy for our present troubles, not to mention the long-term problems facing us all on account of the suffering of African peoples.

Blackberry Messenger

Someone must have given these cousins a message that there were blackberries around; from which you can tell that I am (a) dangerously facetious and/or (b) something of a mobile phone Luddite, certainly unfamiliar with apps. The other sort of BlackBerry must cost well over £100 a throw. So, the hoodlums organising the rioting in London and elsewhere, who seem to be using BM to coordinate their forces, are not exactly going to be on their uppers. Or perhaps the Blackberries themselves were looted?

Nausea quickly overtook me as I listened to the horrific news on the Today Programme this morning. So I turned to Radio 4 Extra, where I found a rerun of To the Manor Born. This is of course hiding one's head in the sand: there can be no peace without justice. Nevertheless, it's perhaps what David Cameron would like to have been able to do when advised to break his Italian holiday.

PS Thomas has drawn my attention to a brilliant post here by Rosamicula: don't be put off by the fact that you have to consent to reading adult content: there's no need for the warning on this particular post. Indeed, reading it should be compulsory.