Patience is a virtue.

Out along the leaf shrouded lane with Wilf. I am 100% convinced that he deliberately walks along the verges so that he can enjoy the satisfying crunch of the leaves beneath his paws. Back home by the track under the chateau walls. Jerome , the old black labrador,was sitting on the village green so while the two of them chatted I looked in the church. The morning light was streaming through the stained glass windows and breathing life onto the rather alarming plaster statue of Joan of Arc . Simple but beautiful.

Despite waiting in all day no sign of any workmen. Experience teaches that they never like to come alone. When they do finally arrive you can be sure that they will turn up en masse - rather like a latter day Pharaohs army in white vans. For the time being all we can do is dream about gutterers, plumbers, electricians, joiners, tilers and all those other vital trades needed to get the rickety old farmhouse ready for winter .

Is the world going completely barmy? Telephoned British Airways to change a flight reservation. The usual questions - frequent flier number, postcode , address. And then a demand to know my date of birth. I was just about to answer when it suddenly struck me - what in heavens do they want to know my date of birth for ? Found myself saying 'I'm only changing a reservation not proving I'm old enough to fly the plane'. The young man at the end of the phone was clearly in no mood to discuss this as he slammed the phone down. I could almost hear him mutter " what a nutter !" as receiver and cradle met.

Tried to order a new computer from Dell. The staff in Hyderabad were efficient and courteous until it came to delivery. It seems that if you live in France you must get a computer with a French keyboard. If you live in the UK you get a good old logical Anglo Saxon one. Try combining the two so that you can get a UK spec computer in France - impossible ! Is there as anything as inflexible as the rigid systems of a big corporation ? Is there anything as annoying as the indifference of telephone sales staff?

Wilf looked at me with sage eyes - " The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook ".