thanks delta, yeah, i got some great material about the awkward french bloke. god help him, his english was as good as my french, which extends vaguely as far as asking for and giving directions to la ferme (the farm?) and la gare (a station?). he had to deal with my hard west belfast accent and an accent from down south too, pretty funny really. awkward as hell. yeah, i think a lot of my archival research is in belfast anyway. what are you studying mate?