I think it was me who reported on France, glad to hear things haven't changed. We have friends who have settled in Normandy. They say, that although workmen, estate agents etc, will all use mobiles that French culture is still about face-to-face communication and that the French like to mull things over and really talk whereas so often mobile conversations here are the inane and unnecessary. The French are v. high-tech though and I seem to remember seeing some horror story about an English family who moved to France and then had a mobile go up on a nearby water tower and they were given short shrift when they tried to object.

We are having a full-scale battle here in Oxford about a mast on a church tower. Last weekend we got on the local radio and tv stations and even on the national BBC news website. We have collected 600 signatures on a petition and many people have written to the diocese to object. We are now holding our breath to hear the response of the diocesan authorities. If they give the go-ahead some people are muttering about sabotage so there's plenty of will. Our councillors also rejected a T-mobile mast on the basis that the company had changed application details at the last moment and had not given sufficient evidence that they had looked at sharing another nearby mast. At the council meeting the planning officer was waving emissions maps, not something I have heard of before. The councillors rubbished his inability to explain them. I expect this is only a temporary halt to the mast but good news anyway.

Ann