I sometimes wonder what The Queen and Prince Philip talk about at breakfast, don’t you? (Actually, this being Summer Fields, I don’t doubt that some of our readers know the answer to that, as they have enjoyed the privilege of dining royally, but as you will be bound to secrecy, I shall never know.) But just in case you should wonder what Mrs C and discuss over our respective bowls of Red Berries Special K, you might be interested to know that we were talking about the various forms of the word ‘agenda’ this morning, as my dear wife was preparing her agenda for the First Year staff meeting. I opined that agenda is a plural word and that too many people fall into the trap of thinking that it’s singular and that therefore the plural must be agendae. It was only when I started to explain that agenda is already plural and that therefore its singular form is agendum that I realised that the spoon of my spouse, to put it alliteratively, was going to find its way down my throat. My learned discourse on such matters faded out, just in time.

Mr Porter was at the helm last night, as Mrs C and I were dining out, with our former colleagues, Messrs Darling, Mayall and McCrae. I am pleased to report that all are well – and thoroughly enjoying retirement. There were other guests present, too, one of whom was recently a contestant on Mastermind, answering questions on the Greeks, or Greek names, or something like that. Mr McCrae was able to compete adequately with such erudition, informing our end of the table that during this year he has completed reading the complete works of Herodotus. In the original Greek, naturally.

As for the Newtonians, all is well. It must be, as there’s not really much to report! Well, apart from one more cat request response:

Yes sir, I have a cat, but it’s really a tiger. Would that be OK?

Excitingly, though, thanks to the blog, I am pleased to announce that a manky moggy from Northumberland will be playing the part of the family pet in the play! In the end I decided that a tiger would perhaps alter the storyline somewhat excessively.