Thanks for all your replies, both positive and negative. (But not the threatening, incoherent ones).

Well Sara, as far as the languages go, here’s the long answer:
I left England in 1961 and went to work in Germany. We hadn’t had German in school, so I bought an ancient German grammar book at a flea market (written in Gothic script!) and studied it for about 3 months. When I got to Frankfurt, I worked for 2 months with an American company (Jeppesens), then got a job with the German company BV Aral designing gas stations. I didn’t have a lot of problems with the language. I moved on from there to Paris, and although I’d had 5 years of French in school, I found it much more difficult than German. (Pity, it’s a much nicer language!) My original intention was to move back to England for a year, save up some money, and go to Japan. While living in Paris one of my friends visited me, and had a correspondence with a Scottish guy living in Copenhagen. He invited me up for two weeks holiday, so I took my suitcase, took to the road and hitch hiked to Denmark. Copenhagen was indeed a lovely place to be in the early sixties, I was very impressed by the Danes’ open, friendly tolerance, and not least the great jazz clubs and charming ladies! I used to say that it was as close to civilisation as I could expect to get!
Since the wage levels were higher in Denmark, I decided to find a job and work in Denmark before continuing to Japan. I had arrived on a Sunday afternoon, was lucky enough to get myself an interview on Wednesday, and started work the following day. Things were a lot, lot easier then! Time passed, and after about a year and a half, I decided I’d better start consciously learning a bit of the language. To my surprise, I found I could already manage quite well, and it has not been much of a problem. I have more problems explaining myself in English than Danish nowadays, I even dream in Danish! The unfortunate side effect of this was that I forgot most of my German. But my my, those were good days!
After about 4 or 5 years in Denmark, I realised that I wasn’t going anywhere from here, so 40 years later, here I sit. I never did get to Japan, but I’m still hoping!
We love travelling in Southern Spain nowadays, and I really would like to learn more Spanish, but it just will not stick anymore. Luckily Randi is competent in Spanish, so at least I have the advantage of having an interpreter with me.

Re: Tony Blair
Ah that’s a hard one! I suppose I was in opposition by leaving, and have never had much respect for the majority of politicians. If I had been in England when Maggie Thatcher was reigning, I would definitely have left post haste. The problem with Tony Blair for me is (among many other things) the “spin doctors” and PR methods that he uses, and the fact that he does tend to act like George Bushes’ little lap dog.

… and you’re right Cataholic, I think I’d better get back to working on “Fisterisms” instead, I’m not very good at political discussions and shouting matches. Talking about Fister is much more productive and much more fun!

john