First, my congratulations to Dr Harskin, who managed to solve last night's conundrum very speedily - although he did admit that his mother had shown him the solution (many) years ago. Sorry, Doc, there's no prize, other than the smug satisfaction that you were the first (and only) Follower to get it.

Whilst wallowing in a moment of self-despair, I wondered to myself this evening whether my much-respected colleague was now the only person who tuned in to this blog each evening. Here I am, I thought, churning out this quasi-informative tosh every night, imagining that the majority of Newton parents are logging on, but perhaps I'm living in the land of cloud cuckoos, and I flex my fingers in vain.

If you're still there, though, here's a snippet for you. Tonight I sat on the bench in the common room and instructed my charges to (a) sort out the DVD, (b) turn off the lights (c) turn up the TV volume. They did so with flattering alacrity.

'Watch and learn,' said I. 'When you people are running your multi-national conglomerates' (and some will, trust me), 'make sure that they know you're the Boss - and get your minions to do the work. If they know what's good for them, they will.'

They will, too. And some of you will know that far better than I.