The lecturer showed a lot of polish at his last talk.

From end to end, just behind the houses, ran the broad gravel walk, with its emphatic camber and its metal-edged gutters where a child's ball would come to rest and the first few plane leaves, dusty but still green, were already falling, since the summer had been so hot and rainless all through.

Outside the toilets school parties from France and Germany stood in stiff groups photographing themselves. They talked loudly without removing their Walkmans. Their headsets sizzled and tished.

Here we are soupifying the blend by adding vegetable stock, as well as coconut milk and plantains, two favorite ingredients in the tropics.