To answer some questions I received via email:

The last we heard, our injured friend’s surgery went well, but the fractures are causing him considerable difficulty. The pain aside, he’s having trouble working – obviously a man with such injuries isn’t going to be in demand on a building site or in agricultural labours. He’s cheerful and remains positive. Fingers crossed for complete recovery.

As for my ‘phone – yes, I did get a new one. Finally. And no, I didn’t get a smart ‘phone. Are you kidding? I could barely handle my late lamented one. I still can’t operate its replacement properly, even though the 7-year old son of a friend went whizzing through the functions for me. I mainly use a cell ‘phone for texts.

So far, I’ve been unable to master texting on this model. It’s got to do with the way the list of names appear, so my first attempt had a somewhat unfortunate result.  A warmly supportive message I thought I was sending to a young friend here in Greece was received by a rather bewildered doctor friend in Austria. Don’t ask.