The chattering classes

We've been back in the UK for a few days, and by far the strangest thing has been getting used to the fact that we can understand everyone around us.

Months in Greece and Austria have now got us so used to the fact that the majority of people near us will be speaking a foreign language, that being able to listen to whatever peope are saying in a cafe or on a train or a bus or in a queue at the shops has been a shock. And what an inane bunch of nonsense people do talk when you can actually understand them!

Of course, the biggest surprise to all of us in this is that from a sustained diet of reading the British press from abroad, we thought you all spoke Polish now.