J'achète du chocolat à la chocolaterie

Not at this one as it was extortionate. Although it did advertise 'free entrance' which is a remarkably kind approach towards patrons without whom it wouldn't exist.

During some of the discussions I enjoyed watching the simultaneous translators in their glass box. During breathers they'd debrief with each other about which speakers rambled and gave them the run around. Given that many thousands of dollars would have been spent to convene delegates for these meetings, the need to convey clear information gives the translators the most important job in the room. They could all simultaneously translate French or Spanish to English and others in the box opposite were doing the reverse. Mightily impressive and I had a pang of regret, which I get on occasion as it would allow greater work opportunities, that I didn't pursue French or Spanish to degree level. But try telling a university applicant that the fourth year back from twelve months abroad is survivable if graduated friends are living an hour's train ride away.

I lunched with a lady from the Uganda delegation. Given that I was there a few months before the anti-gay movement gained momentum and made international news, I couldn't resist probing about the average Ugandan's attitude to homosexuality. I wondered whether it had been a case of a handful of powerful people with a nasty agenda whipping the public, who otherwise would have been pretty non-plussed, into a frenzy. We are becoming familiar with such strategies...

A few years after the lives of thousands of Ugandans were made a living nightmare, the lynchings seem to have died down. From my conversation I would say the public, whilst choosing disgust over celebration and incorrectly persisting to use the word 'promote' relating to homosexuality as a 'lifestyle', is largely not bothered what people do in their personal lives.

My new friend and I did concur that compared to twenty years ago when we were both at high school, many issues are much less taboo in both Ugandan and British society, especially among younger generations. Divorce, teenage pregnancy, homosexuality.

Repressed shame about any of the above is never deserved and is simply the way life is.