It really is worth a guinea a minute here tonight. The resident shoe-shine boy is in action, complete with his self-appointed assistant and there is the usual array of shoes in the downstairs corridor. A wondrous sight indeed.

Christmas, as I mentioned in an earlier post, is certainly coming, and the excitement level is cdertainly increasing by the minute! Unusually, the Ospreyites were in particularly high spirits, causing me to intercept and extinguish such exuberance by one of my usual routines, thus:

"What on EARTH is going on in here? I've never heard such a noise coming from this dorm! And you, X, need to get a serious move on!" (Quite how one defines a 'serious' move on as opposed to a silly one, I'm not entirely sure, but you can bet the Newtonians will try it.) Anyway, back to the anecdote. One of the (taller) members of the dorm looked crestfallen for a moment, but then caught my eye and I could see that he was wondering if he could chance his arm.

"I hope you're acting, sir," said he.

Brave, I thought, that.

There is much talk about decorations, but unfortunately for the residents, they're not allowed until Mr Bishop says so, as I told them, and he's not very likely to say that until after Short Leave. But Newtonians have an answer for everything, of course.

"Sir, if I go and ask Mr Bishop tomorrow, and he says yes, is that OK with you?"

"Er, well, er, um, yes, I suppose so."

Fat chance of him saying yes, so I reckon I'm on pretty safe ground. I'm going to look pretty silly if he does.

Final bit of news for you tonight: I've discovered where Mrs C has hidden the chocolate mountain.

Ho ho ho!