Hey, no problem. I understand some of the things I wrote about TV programs and other subjects were flippant, though I offer no apologies for my comments on madmen Spanish drivers.

A couple of years ago I toured Poland visiting many of the German camps where they held the British Prisoners of War, amongst them my father-in-law. I was able to stand on the ground where his camp was. Several years earlier I had researched where he was captured in 1940 (Highland Division at St Valerie en Caux) and I managed to locate for him the orchard in which he was captured. Years before that I tracked down the crossroads near St Quentin where my grandfather fought and was captured in 1918. Some people don't understand the fascination with tying down where exactly things happened.

Anyway... I have a great love of Spain, it influenced much of my early life and I have fond memories of how it used to be, even though it seemed the little girls were always practicising their clapping 'tunes' when I was trying to have a siesta.

I had a brilliant time on the way back through Spain this trip and stopped for a couple of nights in the place I used to live where I had the best ever Zarzuela (a Catalan seafood stew, for those who don't know). I marched into the kitchen of the restaurant to embrace the chef--he was a bit surprised.

All the best
Tim

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"For sheer delight there is nothing like altitude; it gives one the thrill of adventure
and enlarges the world in which you live," Irving Mather (1892-1966)