Today I have tracked down my missing SIM card.... it turns out it went to the office, was signed for by someone other than me, whom no-one seems to know who it was, as it was a very common name, not quite Marie, but nearly. So my new best friend Manuel at the supplier has cancelled it, got a new one and is sending it chez moi by registered post.

Also on the bright side I have been quite useful to the technical gentlemen and have downloaded nearly 50 fixes for them - they had a list of nearly 200 that they had to download before they could apply them, so I spoke up and said could I help with this. It is the sort of thing that is dead boring, but has to be done. I am really glad I am not a technical architect, because I would die if I had to do that all the time. On the other hand I have been testing functionality for them, to see if what they are doing affects the application, and they've asked me how I can bear to perform the same test fifty times when I know it will fail.

I had a slight hissy fit this morning when I finally got an email from the so-called lawyer who is handling my Cyprus issues. He said I needed a work permit and he was busy finding out the documents that I needed to submit! Of course I panicked, as this is stating the obvious, we all know I need a work permit, how come it takes him a week to find this out. But Mr Resources Director has just been reassuring me that they are doing something and I should be able to get there by November 5th. Bonfire Day, how appropriate! I should probably have a bonfire with fish and chicken for the street kittens, I expect they will be happy to see me back, given the amount of money I invested at Nando's on their behalf.

Plans for the weekend - onwards with David's present, and, if I am really good, start the With All My Heart biscornu. The linen for this is really nice, a limited R&R pink. I can't believe how much I have liked the latest two pieces of R&R I have got, when the first one I had, last year, was so horrid that I have never used it, all mottled, as though it had just had a cup of coffee, or even something not very nice, thrown at it.

I also have to go out to La Defense, as I need to buy a ping-pong ball, for the Susan O'Connor classes next week. I have this awful feeling that we are going to draw it, with shading, in the silk shading class. That should be fun, at least everyone should get a good laugh from my drawing. Anyway I will go out there tomorrow, and see if I can succeed in buying a single ping-pong ball, there are a couple of sports stores somewhere there, and, according to Madame LA, they should have these, if only I can get through the displays of enormous shoes. I have to say I think trainers are the most repulsive shoes ever, especially if they are thick white ones worn with blue jeans. I may well have to go through the shoe stores as an antidote to the sports stores.