The Hendos left Wednesday night. There was some consternation that the Volcano would prevent them from leaving and they were getting a bit edgy about the garden at home. John has a John Deere mower which he uses to mow the lawn in his vast estate and he suffers from withdrawal symptoms if he does not ride it regularly.

I think I may have inadvertently added to the problems caused by the Volcano. A few days ago I deleted a whole bunch of large digital photographs and released billions of pixels into the atmosphere. These must have caused a problem and I hope they can’t trace them back to me. But I just don’t know how to delete photographs and not make a mess with the pixels.

Christine was quite taken with the cats – especially Monika and Sissi – and is planning on acquiring a cat as soon as she gets home. She is a former cat minder so knows the ropes and they have a gigantic house in the country which is perfect for a cat – or two. John is not so keen but as he has no say over what happens inside the house she will not have a problem.

I have purchased my iMac online from Apple in Austria. It is the Mother of iMacs with something called a Quad-Core – and with 8GM of Ram and a 1TB Hard Disk. Lenny is right about the Mac to die for but I have a limited allowance and Cate is already giving me an advance on this so I don’t want to push my luck - I am going to have to take in washing and ironing as it is to make ends meet.

I have bought all the appropriate software and have joined the Mac forum so that I can display my stunning ignorance in public. These will all be prefaced with ‘Dumb Newbie question follows:’