Bondage and Bed Bugs

I write from St. Jean for a brief, permitted 10 mins, 9 of those having been taken up by re setting my password and the last by telling you this, so I continue until they kick me off.
I finally decided to pay Ryanair for hold baggage having read confusing rports from internet forums as to the permmisibility of taking walking poles and penknives in hand luggage. To all those will be pilgrims out there, the picture remains muddy. I asked one security guy who told me poles were fine and another who said definitely not; the same with penknives as 6inch blades are fine, but corkscrews are not. Since they all worked in the same dept. and rotated their jobs each taking a turn at bag viewing, it is completely pot luck. One security guy summed it up well when he said it is fine to stab someone in the air but not to open a bottle of wine.
The flight began with an accidental punch in the nose from a fellow passenger who dealt with it in that oh so plummy english way that my nose should not have been in the way. My seating companions were retired, married folk who flipped from language to language as they conversed. They returned to England for their operations on knees and other failing areas and resided in sunnier climes from New York to Greece for the remainder. Fortunately or unfortunately the chap suddenly remarked half way through the flight ``My God Ryanair provide bondage straps`` pointing to some silky yellow tie on the side of him. His wife didn`t bat an eye, but I was rather amused. Do men think of these things ALL the time?
There were pilgrims galore aboard the flight and by the time we had boarded the bus to Bayonne conversation flowed. So my dear friend Annie I am one among many who seek more than the temporal. More than that that consumes our attention in the here and now; so many more important things that are unseen but real and eternal.
I spent my first night in T shirt qnd knickers in a dorm with 4 strange men. It was bizarre and splendid and they were amazingly galant. Such fun. I had dined with 5 pilgrims where much debate took place over the killing of Bin Laden, which was particularly well informed as one lady worked for Amnesty International.
Sleep came slowly as our conversation had turned to the bed bug problem in the refugios, 2 of the men having all the equipment to prevent such things and the rest of us subject to fangs whose bites can leave you needing a hospital visit. Oh joy. When sleep finally came we were all awoken bar one by the sonorous gruntings and whistles of deep slumber. Funny how murderous you can feel for so little. Still he was well rested and full of the joys of a 28km walk at 6am.
Much love, Kate