And I hope you had a very happy LL, too, dear Followers. As Mrs C, Alice and I did.

Hell, they say - or rather, Mr Computer-Price says, with considerable regularity, - might freeze over before certain things may or may not happen. (In the case of the aforementioned, it usually involves some aspect of things technological; e.g. he might get a new printer.) Tonight, Newton's heating was 'failing to proceed', as those of you who are fortunate enough to be Rolls-Royce owners will understand, and so we froze. Well, relatively, I suppose, as I did go and nick the learning support department's mini radiators.

One of our Scottish brethren returned, employing his best north-of-the-border accent to heighten the effect:

"Och, it's a bit Scotland-like in here, the noo!" (Actually I made the 'the noo' bit up: I'm assured that no Scot would ever say it anyway.)

The lack of heating did, in fact, give rise to a certain satire among some of the residents, especially one who, when asked what he was doing with his glasses case during silent reading, told me that he was 'chipping the ice off his bunk bed.'

It's good to heave your LMs back with us again: I heard all about your various exploits, especially the ski-ing ones - and I particularly enjoyed hearing about the number of times that one Newtonian changed his pants. Oh yes: I hear it all here, you know.

My bike passed its MOT on Friday! It now has a very snazzy front tyre. That makes two of us - as my daughter observed.