Safely back in Ponters, where it's not yet raining and the temperature is a lovely 24.

But the phone doesn't work and the fence-fixing said to be imminent when I left for the UK four weeks ago has not been done. But the grass and the weeds have grown a treat.

The six-hour drive back from Santander was uneventul, so I won't bore you with the question of whether it took one, three or five minutes to be 1. irritated by a driver with no lane discipline, 2. swerving to avoid an illegally parked car, and 3. annoyed by a Mercedes up my backside. Yes, you've guessed. Five minutes for all three.

Good to be back in a country where at least one thing is utterly predictable!

Normal service this evening.

P. S. Feast or bloody famine.I called Telefonica early this morning and have now had three calls asking me what's wrong with the line. Don't these people ever talk to each other? Or are they like the doctors in the emergency rooms at the local hospital - rushed off their feet but endlessly inefficient?