And pigs might fly.....

June 1st already...and this was the date we had hoped we would have an answer from Bermuda, but that was always going to be as likely as pigs flying past my window now.
So, we wait another month and have to come up with ways to pass the hours, which is not going to be so hard over the next few days as we are in the run-up to Peru's elections.
On Sunday, millions of people in this country will go to the polls to chose between two men who will each have the rather unenviably task of trying to persuade voters that he is the least worst choice. What a situation to be in.
This is a stupendous country, with vast natural resources, with more culture than the United States has in its little finger (pinkie, sorry), but just doesn't seem to be able to get it together politically. Okay, it's not as disastrous as some of its neighbours: Bolivia or Ecuador, but it is amazing how a country that seems to have been progressing relatively smoothly along the democratic path and has an economy that would do most developed countries proud (at least superficially, if you don't count the fact that most of the country are poor despite 5 plus percent economic growth), can have landed itself in this situation.
People are going to have to choose between a former president who almost brought the country to its knees and then fled Peru leaving it racked by debt default, inflation and terrorism, and a nationalist former army officer, Ollanta Humala, who, despite his recent protests to the contrary, seems to have become a puppet of Hugo Chavez. The country is now so fractured that some are predicting there will be violence this weekend.
The current president and the Organisation of American States have criticised the comments by the Venezuelan leader, saying he is interfering, which of course he is, but have pledged that Sunday's elections are going to be 'free and fair'. Well, free and fair to the extent that most Peruvians I have spoken to don't actually want to vote, although they are legally obliged -- and get fined if they don't -- and propose to either ruin their ballot papers or vote for 'el mal menor' (the least worst).
In the past, the south of Peru and the more remote areas of the Andes have been the cradle for insurgency and instability, primarily because these are the Peruvians who feel most left out by economic growth and these are the country's poorest -- effectively forgotten by the elite in Lima. So, these indigenous people are subjugated by the wealthy descendants of the Spanish conquistadors who arrived here 500 years ago...it seems nothing has changed.
I've got quite a lot of work to do over the next few days in the run up to Sunday, so I'll sign off for now. Happy June 1 from Hannah and Bean, who -- by the amount of kicking going on -- I think has been inspired by the advent of the World Cup to become a footballer even before he/she is born. Uncle Al will be proud.....
xxx