Into each life some volcano ash must fall....and that is why, dear disinterested readers, you did not bump into me on the Croisette last month but may have seen me on the Ginza as the rains fell on Cannes. We have a lot of catching up to do since L annee derniere a Carlsbad ....via many European Smiles at the last Mlada Boleslav Festival of Smiches, as the Czechs so charmingly call it when humour illuminates the human face,then across to merry Moravia for the Znojmo Festival of Media and Gastronomy, thence to Anatalya for my first-footing in so-called six and seven star hotels at the extraordinary Golden Orange Festival, a brief pit-stop for refuelling at the London Film Festival, the marvellous Mannheim-Heidelberg event in November, a sortie to Trieste for the S F Festival there with Sir Christopher Lee, and a swift return to that delightful city for the Alpe Adria Festival, the bitterly cold and snow-swept Berlinale, a British Film Conference at the University of Mainz (wie es singt and lacht), and then trapped in lovely Lecce for an otherwise successful and enjoyable Festival of European Cinema, until Iceland erupted, and all our travel plans changed.

So all of this I shall shortly summarise for you soon, and  add some notes on clean, green, Zlin ,and not so sunny Setubal where the 26th Festroia reaches its climax this very weekend.

 Are you sitting comfortably?...very soon we shall begin.....promise!