Due to the cumulative effect of Easter holidays, high temperatures and sick bugs, I am very behind with my work.

Was finally getting down to trying to finish various started and interrupted articles, when was once again interrupted, this time by call from the Relative Formerly Known As Dad (now Granddad, Father-in-Law, the old man depending on who you are) wanting help with an article he was attempting to write himself.

To be fair, it was not help with the writing he wanted but with the technical details he had been asked to include, the inclusion of which had sent him into a mild apoplexy.

The piece was about a trip he had recently made to Japan and, while he was more than able to wax lyrical about the technical marvels of heated loo seats and curtains which you draw by pushing buttons, the fact he'd been asked to list web addresses of hotels had caused him to hit the panic button - the panic button being the one that is programmed to call self, which the Relative Formerly Known As Mother, whose technical know-how is slightly more advanced that Dad's, had pre-programmed our number into.

This has the advantage, to them, that we can be quick to help with anything that requires a nano bit of technical knowledge.

"What's a web site and what's an email?" asked the RFKAD. "Are they the same?"

"A web site is like a big place which you can visit," I said, trying to relate my description as much as possible to world he is comfortable with.

"Whereas an email is like a letter but you send it electronically - hence the e."

"Well one of the hotels seems to have a web site but the other just has an email so which do I put?" he flapped.

I told him to put everything down and leave it to the subs to check the email addresses and web sites for him.

"And can I send emails from a mobile phone?" he asked. He has a mobile phone but no idea how to use it and I told him as he can barely master making a call, he'd be unlikely to manage an email, although his phone probably has WAP facilities and theoretically it would be possible.

Being a man of a generation which was not politically correct and where WAP meant something else entirely, we ended up having a conversation about what you are and are not allowed to call people these days, instead of dealing with the matter in hand.

We returned to it when the RFKAD asked: "If this email says email anna@something-or-other dot com, then is something-or-other a web site or an email?"

"It's an email address," I told him. "There might or might not be a web site relating to something-or-other, which is the domain."

Being a man with a classical background, domain is something he just about understands, though not in this case - so I was once again prevented from getting on by being forced to explain, using husband Thomas as example.

"Thomas has a domain, thomasiswonderful.com (a slight exaggeration but that's the general idea behind his company address) and you can email him at thomas@thomasiswonderful.com, so that's his email address."

I was not sure if the RFKAD went quiet because he understood or because he was overwhelmed but he appeared satisfied and politely bid me goodbye.

He phoned again a few moments later to say he'd grasped the concept of email addresses and presumed that hhtp was an email address of someone in Haywards Heath ...