Zoran from Serbia came round with Ann last night, they had met on a CELTA course a few years back. He had never seen rhubarb before and insisted on photographing the plant in the garden before working his way through a bowl of it covered with custard. He is a head teacher in Serbia working with a mainly all female staff of over 30. He was voted in as head by the rest of the teachers, they thought that he was the best person for the job so he gets their full support; now there's an idea! He gets paid an equivalent of about £350 a month and almost choked when we told him that some families in this country, where nobody in the family works, get far more than that in a WEEK, given to them! He is such an educated, cultural person speaking several languages and you couldn't wish to meet a nicer guy. Serbia is not in the EU so he can't work over here; he may not even want to. It brought to mind the millions of people in our country who stay at home watching TV all day, being paid by the state to do nothing. Not their fault really, just victims of a society which took a wrong turn many years ago!

Couldn't help thinking about 'the tree' this morning, whilst listening to the news. Two Israeli soldiers were pruning a tree on the Lebanese border because some of the branches were obscuring their view. A Lebanese border patrol warned them off, but a gun battle ensued in which four soldiers and a journalist were killed! A lesson to be learnt before I decide whether to chain myself to the tree across the road next month!

I usually wear odd socks, well usually because sometimes, just down to pure chance, I will lift two socks out of the drawer that are an identical pair. I decided this some years back, when I was pairing socks up after doing the laundry. It took ages and what was the point, nobody ever sees your socks unless you are entering a mosque or a casualty unit. Even then the result is just funny and you find that you have attracted more attention than if you had worn a Gucci suit. So think about it, is it really necessary? And then there's shoes! Until the age of 10, I must have tried on dozens of pairs of shoes before buying. You finally find a shoe that fits almost perfectly, and then you hear those ridiculous words..."would you like to try the other one"? What? Why? I soon realised that my right foot was the same size as my left foot, as most people's are. In the last 48 years I have never tried on the 'other shoe' and it has always fitted when tried at home later. Except once, when I got home and found that I had two right footed shoes in the box and yes, I took them back, with some embarrassment!