At around 2 pm CET today, the wind here changed with dramatic intensity from SW to NE. By 2.40 pm, walnuts were falling on my head (there’s a song in there somewhere) and my feet told me that the traditional seven months without socks in the Lot were drawing to a close. What had been a gentle flutter of falling leaves turned into a grass-strangling avalanche of crinkly brown papyrus. Accordingly, the Englishman took the sweater.

Last night, the Polish pantechnicon arrived, replete with a completely galvanised and painted steel balustrade, 240 bottles of beer, 4 tons of wood, cement, plaster, plasterboard, 8 large cans of top quality paint, a specially constructed light roof covering with soundproof underlay, plus both heat-reflecting and cold-stopping insulation..along with four velux roof windows. The entire cost weighed in at €8150, including transport and unloading. English chum Kent was on hand to help with the unloading process: he told me that the balustrade alone – handmade to my design – would’ve cost €20,000 euros if made in France. Therein lies the root of the French State’s insolvency.

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This afternoon, my one-to-one battle with Supermouse finally came to an end…but what a worthy and admirable opponent he had been.

Not only did this big-brained rodent work out how he could extract cheese/smoked meat from the trap without incident, the cheeky sod worked out how he could make the guillotine come down without venturing inside…at which moment he could enter the tunnel and munch at ease on the generously provided contents.

But this morning – after endless Barnes Wallis style tests – I worked out how to lull the mouse into a false sense of security by plonking the cheese under the receptacle in such a manner as to make safe extraction impossible. This did for him, but he was awarded full Viking Valhalla honours by being dumped onto the fire pit.

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And by gum, what about this? Public support for Britain staying in the European Union has risen to a 23-year high, an IpsosMORI survey opinion poll suggested today. It seems that 56% of UK citizens now say they would vote to stay in the EU in a referendum – the highest level since 1991.

Could this mean they would rather have anything than Faisal Naraj in government? I think we should be told.

Cue Indyref2…..

Earlier at The Slog: Juncker, Guido and Facebook in a corner