CONTACT IS RESTORED

I'm sitting again in Fritha's flat early on Friday morning and I'm pleased to report that I've just had an email from Barbara in Cuzco. She is well and enjoying everything. She says some of her fellow travellers have had problems with altitude sickness but she hasn't been affected at all so far. She is also keeping notes of everything so she can do her half of the blog when she has the chance. I have a feeling that won't be until she gets over here and I have to do it for her. She's off to Machu Pichu for the next few days and promised another email before she goes. Also her phone is now recharged and we can text if need be.

In the meantime back in London I'm heading out on a one day trip today, to Portsmouth Harbour and the Naval Museum. This is the location of Nelson's ship, HMS Victory. I've booked lots of rail tix online and if you do it in advance, even by one day, you can get amazing discounts. Last night we drank a few pints and watched. the last pre-election debate. I have to say I thought Brown outperformed the other two. The topic was the economy and he came acrossd as someone totally in control of that area.

You may have read of his blunder this week when he talked to an elderly lady about immigration and what she called "all these Eastern Europeans flooding in." He left an open lapel mike on and as he got in the car her was heard to refer to her as "some sort of bigot woman". Very very embarrassing for him, and a huge drawcard for the media. On the lighter side, a well known political satirist who models himself on Tony Blair's spin doctor,Alisdair Campbell, tweeted in character his advise to Gordon Brown e.g. "Raise the terror alert level, that might work again."

and "Send a junior minister down to Luton to call Esther Rantzen (a tv icon) a c**t, that should take the heat off Gord for a bit." They do great political satire here.

So that's it from me.