I am about to drive to the south of France for a few days. Ryan, my border collie, has insisted on coming with me. He has reminded me that this was one of the main reasons I bought a hatchback last year. At the English Speaking Society last night, I was advised that I am not allowed to have him in the car itself and must have a net between me and him if he is in the boot. So, it is OK in Spain to put your child on the dashboard but you can’t put your dog in the boot. We all agreed that the most nets you were likely to see in a lifetime was around one or two.

Still on the subject of driving, I have decided to stop signalling at roundabouts. This clearly confuses other drivers as, when I signal that I am turning left, it incites them to rush in front of me. It has been explained to me that this is because they assume that I am going right round the roundabout and, therefore, the same way as them. So they accelerate to get ahead of me. Better to leave them guessing as to where I might actually end up as this forces them to hesitate. Stop even. The most astonishing thing about this advice is that it works.

I shall experiment on French roundabouts later this week