There’s a place close to here, we’ll call it “Pleasantville”. It’s a very wealthy area, lots of European Royals can be spotted there at weekends playing polo. It’s not a place I visit often.

I was talking to a friend last night who works in Pleasantville giving Spanish classes to the foreign kids. She often has a funny story or two to tell about the goings-on in Pleasantville, but what she told me last night was so sad. She went to a regular student’s house for a class, he’s eighteen. As she went into the house he asked her if she’d like some coffee. She said she would and followed him into the kitchen. He just stood there looking at her and eventually said, “help yourself”. A bit surprised she told him it would be nice for him to make it for her. “I can’t” he said, “it’s the maid’s day off”. His lesson that day was how to make a cup of coffee.