Finally !

Received an email from the lawyer this morning and once again braced for more unpleasant news: more bureaucratic madness, more twists and turns in a long and winding road to nowhere. But what I actually got this time was the unbelievably good news that P is now able to stay longterm in the UK, and to stay without feeling like a prisoner devoid of rights and status. Ten months after our visa application nightmare began and eight months after entering the UK (an entry fraught with anxiety and so nearly denied to P and Sam), it looks like we can finally breathe out and inch closer to the kind of normality that most people take for granted - especially me before all this happened. Many thanks to our lawyer Philip, to my MP and his right-hand woman, Simon Hughes and Magali, and above all to my parents for supporting us every step of the way in this trip through hell.

Car crash

Eike Batista has been bragging about his vast wealth and its inexorable rise. Hubris swiftly followed by nemesis, as his son is all over the headlines - international as well as Brazilian - for killing a cyclist while driving daddy's supercar. An unfortunate accident ? Of course. Always, when you're part of Brazil's elite class. I was drawn to the second-most popular readers' comment in the Daily Mail coverage: