Today I cleaned, well a little bit, the flat. The reason for this, and yes, there has to be a reason, was the visit of the French division of the Webcam Fan Club: Jean-Marie Florin. Many months ago Jean-Marie e-mailed me to say he liked the webcam poking out my window as it reminded him of Hastings where he has been bringing students for many decades. I said he should drop in for a cup of tea next time he was over. I then forgot about the exchange. You can imagine the panic that set in here when he e-mailed to say he would be round at 3.15 on the 7^th April. It got so bad that Mr Hoover had to emerge from his cobwebbed hiding place.

He turned out to be a charming retired Deputy Headmaster who managed to hide his health fears when entering the flat very well.

As a hostage to fortune I invited him to come again next year and bring friends; the European dream starts to end here!

Jean-Marie at the hub of the Against the Dark empire.