Thanks a lot to all the year 10 and 11 students at Kelmscott school who sat patiently through my Hannibal talk the other day! A very generous and forgiving audience.

One of the best questions of the day was "what was the most peculiar thing that you came across on your trip?"

I had to think quite hard as there were lots and perhaps tellingly the first thing that came to mind was the middle aged prostitute with no undies on who flashed Sam in an unnamed campsite in Spain. That was quite peculiar but perhaps not the best thing to talk about in a class room! So I told them about the huge posters of Ben Ali all over the place in Tunisia and how every cafe, building and taxi also had a portrait of him in pride of place. And how everyone you asked would talk in a strangely tepid way about how wonderful he was! It was very peculiar and not at all surprising that he no longer runs the country. The kids would've enjoyed the prostitute story much better I think.

Thanks also to Dan Gilman their teacher...and sorry I accidently stole my visitor's badge  - I'll send it back.

The presentation is here: https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B9Q43r-RM7aCZDkyOWUwZTgtZjBiMC00N2U3LWIyYTctYzlmYmRjYzljMGM2&hl=en