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Still attempting to come to terms with terrible news I got on Thursday. Triathlete Caroline Kearney, daughter of Ann, has died, aged only 24. She was in an accident while training with a group on her bike last Wednesday, near St Raphael, in the south of France, where she was training full-time with her sights […]

When you write in Arabic, you leave out the vowels. The owner of this sabubrious looking establishment has carried the logic over into English – the correct name in case you can’t guess is ‘Interdiplomat’. So now when you come to town, you know where to go!

(Form today’s newspaper, written by Indians, hence the gorgeous archaic style…) Public security sleuths have mounted vigil on cyber cafes across the city after three Asian employees of an Internet café were recently caught accessing pornographic websites that were blocked by the local telecome company. . The café to which the nabbed trio belonged was […]

(Form today’s newspaper, written by Indians, hence the gorgeous archaic style…) Public security sleuths have mounted vigil on cyber cafes across the city after three Asian employees of an Internet café were recently caught accessing pornographic websites that were blocked by the local telecome company. . The café to which the nabbed trio belonged was […]

Sorry – yet another image of feral cats, this time a mother and her kitten lurking under one of this town’s most famous landmarks. Went out early last Saturday morning at around 7.45am to get shots of this monument when the sun was shining on it. Very pleased with the result – and the walking […]

(Cake decorations in a shop window) Went to the supermarket at around 5pm, and it was all right, but everything you do now is determined by the searing heat. I asked one of the locals working with us what they did? “We go to Europe,” she answered. So the weekend is spent indoors, attempting as […]

(Cake decorations in a shop window) Went to the supermarket at around 5pm, and it was all right, but everything you do now is determined by the searing heat. I asked one of the locals working with us what they did? “We go to Europe,” she answered. So the weekend is spent indoors, attempting as […]

(See left for the street where I live. The appartment block is in the middle distance) ‘Hottest meanest stretch of desolation this side of hell’; well not quite – I took that line from a movie playing on cable TV recently. But it certainly is hot, with temperatures stuck in the mid-40s. It affects everything […]

Mariana shows off her tattoo(above); Amalia on top of the world (well, the climbing tower in Marlay) (below); Max swings (right); Susie, Ben, Mum, David (on top).

Back here, nothing much has changed. This country is still a mystery wrapped in an enigma. In 2004, the population was 744,000. Last year (in other words six months ago), it was estimated at 855,000. The experts now think that number will swell to 910,000 by the end of the year. Of that figure, only […]