Off out Christmas Shopping today with Tracy, we probably won’t get a lot of shopping done, but it will involve us talking each other to death and eating several nice things. Just what the doctor ordered.

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The repair man turned up yesterday with a new drum for the photocopier and complained that people should read the instructions first and that the machine was a very sensitive piece of equipment. That was the trouble these days, he said, people didn’t respect anything anymore. I got the impression that he was a bit of an anorak – so quickly excused myself.

He wandered into my office some time later holding a piece of plastic with metal bits attached to it – he’d mended the machine, he told me – and I should speak to whoever was responsible to make sure they didn’t do it again. I assured him that I’d speak to them personally and make sure that they weren't so irresponsible in future, but it had been an accident -and accident happened.

No, you're quite correct, I totally failed to mention that it was me that had cruelly mistreated the machine in the first place - I'd have never have got rid of him.

I must say it was quite an achievement to turn an A4 piece of plastic into something so compact: