Tempus fugit and all that. Already it's Friday. Monday's nine hour drive from Dover started off in miserable conditions but once north of London the weather cleared and I sailed along, periodically passing through stretches of cone filled motorway where occasionally work was going on. More often the reason for the cones escaped me.

The flat was in great nick thanks to Connor's ministrations. The only reason that he will not be nominated for the Nobel domestic service prize is a singular failure to iron the shirts that I left in August.

Since then I've been picking up the traces; drawing up lists of things to do, a bit of culture here and there, a Grads meeting - and, I renewed my acquaintance with television last night. I was so pleased to see a Kirkcaldy man do well on University Challenge.

I've found time to finish the book I was reading, a John Le Carré spy novel in which I didn't expect to find a joke that would made me laugh out loud. Let me share it with you.

"This morning, still drunk, he had called Strelski to warn him of a new form of AIDS that was afflicting Miami. It was called Hearing Aids , Pat said, and came from listening to too many assholes from Washington."