Referring to the very first post, I can claim to actually be in the Cotswolds... well, the cheap part of it, anyway. The 'classy' part of it is what is supposed to be classic English countryside - stone-built cottages, and all country-squire types. You can't find a local person living in a real Cotswold village any more - it's all retired pop stars and disgraced members of parliament.

Five miles up the road from here is the Wychwood, immortalised in (I think) a Strawbs album. Two miles south is the village which claims to be the home of Morris dancing. And I often offend my fellow Christians here by pointing out that we're in a traditional area of black magic, 'the old religion'.

But American place-names, and house-names, often puzzle us. I have never worked out what a Duplex is... but I enjoyed the story of the young lad who, desperate to chat up the new girl in town, asked the classic question: 'How do you like living in a Playtex?'!

- Ian B