I’ve been out of touch with the wider world for some time now, but it’s not because I’m turning into some sort of recluse. Any thoughts I may have had of abandoning civilisation and living a life of contemplation up in the mountains were abandoned years ago, when I stopped reading all those silly Herman Hesse novels at university.

The blame for my infrequent communications lies with the local telecommunications company here in Ireland. After five weeks, they’re only just getting around to connecting the telephone in my new home. Fingers crossed, it should all be up and running next week, complete with the necessary high speed connection.

Let this be a lesson to anyone contemplating a move to the slower paced life of Ireland - six weeks for a telephone connection is not that unusual. Of course, as soon as the connection comes through, I’ll be ditching Eircom in favour of one of their many competitors - incompetence has a price guys!

Despite my sheltered life over the past month, work has continued on the next version of PageFour - details to follow.