I’m back in England (that place where No Smoking signs actually breed) where it is actually a bit warmer than in the mountains on Crete. However, as I noted to Caroline recently, when the temperature here is, say, 18 in the shade it’s probably only a few degrees above that in direct sunlight, if there is any. On Crete for an equivalent temperature in the shade the direct sunlight temperature can be 30 or above.

First job upon getting back here was sorting through the mail. Damn but I wish all our junk mail could be diverted to Crete. It would keep the house there warm for days. Next was food, and how wonderful it was, upon our return home and not having had much to eat, to phone the local Chinese and order a meal for two – delivered to our door just half an hour later (and scoffed at great speed). After that I had to retune the TVs because of the digital changeover, and my goodness isn’t there a lot to watch (an expected reaction after a diet of BBC World, Greek TV and DVDs). And now, of course, I have constant Internet.

I give it just a few days before I start shouting at the TV, a month before I decide I really need to stop eating so much, and a few months before I get disgusted at the amount of time I’m wasting on the Internet.