Having become engrossed in enhancing my Simple Forum plugin, tweaking a few others, finishing off the changes I needed to run with WordPress 2.1 and helping others with numerous queries and problems, suddenly a whole week has passed and I have written nothing.

And somewhere in that week, at about half past three Monday morning (in England), the New England Patriots got whipped which is why I nearly had to eat my hat as I was convinced the Colts would fall at the final hurdle. It played havoc with my sleep pattern but was worth it to finally see the smirk wiped from Tom Brady’s face.

Which has nothing to do with what I wanted to say when I started this. Anyone who knows me or has been here before, may know of my fondness for hats and my complaints that it can be so hard to find good hats in England. It’s good to see stores like John Lewis and M&S starting to stock a small selection but I have not been impressed with either the quality or the choice so far. But it is a start. But then my wife stumbled across Pachacuti, a ‘Fair Trade’ supplier of hand made hats! To unashamedly quote from their web-site:

Pachacuti specialises in genuine Panama hats handmade by a women’s co-operative in Ecuador. These hats are manufactured in the Cuenca region using traditional skills and techniques. We aim to keep mechanisation to a minimum and our hats are woven, sorted, formed and finished by hand. Pachacuti means ‘world upside-down’ in the South American language of Quechua and one of our principal aims is to redress the economic balance for the people with whom we trade. In buying a Panama Hat from Pachacuti you can be confident that not only will you receive a genuine, high quality Panama but also that your hat will have been sourced directly from the producer under the principles of Fair Trade.

And they have a shop in Ashbourne, Derbyshire. Not a million miles away…