Monday, December 19/2016

Out to Mario the tailor to have my jacket fitted. Short discussion on the biases of BBC. He has three examples. First there's pro-Clinton on the American election and pro-remain on the referendum. Have to agree, and can see that I have been less incensed than I might have been because my own preferences are anti-Trump, if not exactly pro-Clinton, and in favour of the UK remaining in the EU. Irrelevant to the failings of neutrality. His third example is Syria and the limited, and by no means neutral sources. They keep quoting the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, he says, and we say, at the same time, and with equal indignation,  "Which is one man in Coventry!" Nuff said. 

Elsa collects me and we go to Mario's coffee shop (unrelated Mario) for coffee and chat. Jane joins us. It's a nice spot. Half a dozen tables, if that, but clearly regular clientele and a small lending library. Very pleasant.

In the evening Kiki comes up with a man that we understand to be not the electrician but his brother, who eventually gets the bedroom heater working. J persuades Kiki to join us for a glass of Bailey's between bits of translation. If we understand it rightly the heater now works (and indeed it does) and the electrician will check things tomorrow. Much expression of management horror that it has been defective, all of which seems a little over the top as we reported it a couple of weeks back with no response.