Morning RMJ. How are things in Anetz? I've yet to locate it on the map, but I'm sure it's better than Milton Keynes, which is not where I live by the way. Big problem on the farm at 6am this morning. One of the milking machines broke down and me and Brenda had to do 50 cows by hand. Tiring work, although Brenda is very adept at it. I shall get Mr Gooch, the local farrier and blacksmith, to fix it by tonight.

The Zimbabwe question is a real can of worms, as Mr Randall, the local fisherman who uses a coracle to fish on the beck at the edge of Bottom Pasture, would call it.

To go or not to go. If we go, there will be a big opportunity to keep the plight of those poor people in the headlines. The Zim cricketers will also have an opportunity to express their views about the dictator Mugabe.

If we don't go, that will be making a statement that we will not play sport in a country where people are being deliberately starved. As usual, the cricketers are between a rock and a hard place, as the politicians and cricket authorities dither on the other side of the boundary.