Three news items have briefly held my notoriously poor attention span over the last few days.

1.    M. Sarkozy claims that he was present when the Berlin Wall came tumbling down, and has posted a photograph of himself on his Facebook site showing him hacking at the wall with his little tool. However, there have been many counterclaims, and even accusations that the photograph has been Photoshopped and he wasn’t actually there at the time.  I can’t see that it matters one tittle if he was or wasn’t. Surely it isn’t worth lying about?

2.     We have a new hero, Tony Musulin, the security van driver who calmly drove away with over 11 million euros in crisp new notes. He has been proclaimed “Best Thief of the Year”, and the Le Parisien daily newspaper commented: “Good move, well pulled off.” The common attitude seems to be that it was a perfect crime, pulled off without violence. I have to admit to a twinge of disappointment to read that some 9 million euros from the heist have now been recovered. On the other hand, Tony and the remaining millions have not (yet), and I can’t help hoping that they never will be. Why shouldn’t he get away with it, just like the banking bosses?

Here’s Tony! And when they make the film, I nominate Russell Crowe for the lead role.

3.     Ten kilometers from our door a man suspected of a triple murder has been arrested. The turgid surface of French rural life conceals a minor maelstrom of tragedies and disasters, and there have been a number of suicides and murders locally over the years. But I don’t think we’ve heard of a triple murderer in the area before.

I wonder how the recent vegan banquet at Windsor Castle went off? Particularly when HRH the DoE was hosting it. Did he make any of his habitual faux pas and manage to offend any of the 200 guests? I can’t help visualising him having a handful of biltong tucked away in his hanky for a sneaky nibble when nobody was looking.

It must have been challenge enough to design a vegan menu, but to also have to omit any of the onion and garlic family as well? I wasn’t aware that these are avoided in some religions, including Hindu.  We eat loads of both, and the thought of life without them is very bleak. Is it possible to make a good curry without using either?

We’ve had Masterchef, Celebrity Masterchef and Professional Masterchef. Isn’t it time we had Vegetarian Masterchef? How about it, Gluttonous Greg?

With guests for the last nine days life has been very busy and lots of fun, but left no time for blogging. But now that I’m back in action, here’s a question for all plant lovers. What is this house plant? I know the photos are absolute crap, but I think they give a reasonable idea of what it looks like.

It’s been with us for over nine years, during which time it has been drowned, dehydrated, sunburnt, starved, forgotten, and almost frozen. It’s still in the same pot in which it arrived, and until now it has just survived, doing nothing spectacular. The most attention it gets is plenty of water when the leaves look droopy. It’s a bit weedy – five stems each about 20 cm. in length, naked at the bottom and with the dark green velvety leaves towards the top.

Suddenly it’s become a star, with each stem bearing clusters of pretty pink trumpets. Why has it chosen to do this all of a sudden? In the past it has occasionally produced a lone pink blossom, but now it seems to be erupting. To reward it for its tenacity I’d like to know how to care for it properly, but haven’t been able to identify it.

Any ideas, please?