Good evening all - wherever in the world you may be, and a special greeting to anyone in New Zealand who may be having a squint at this nocturnal blogobabble.

I sent an e-mail to Our Leader this morning about something which I suppose must have had a touch of end-of-termishness about it, as it brought the briefest of responses:

! Only four days to go!

And I tell you that because it has served to remind me that the term will shortly be over and I must thank all of you loyal Followers for your wonderful support, whether tangible, as in those amazing cookies from the best Granny in the world, or other hugely appreciated and gratefully guzzled treats, or simply by logging on to these quinquagenarian ramblings every night.

We all went to the junior play tonight. It was very well performed indeed by the Second Year boys, but it was a little sad at the end, when the principal character actually died. This gave rise t the following dualogue:

"Sir, what did you think of the play?"

"Terrific," I said, "most enjoyable. You?"

"Well, yes, I suppose so - if you like thowing yourself off a warehouse."

Anyway, moving on. I forgot to tell you on Saturday night that we enjoyed listening to the senior boys in aballoon debate. The characters involved were Mohammed al Fayeed, Tim Berners-Lee, Albert Einstein, our own Henry Harman, and some Korean footballer called Kim Jung Il, or something similar. Most enjoyable it was, too, and we were invited to vote for our character of preference at the end.

When I returned to Newton, I was asked who I had voted for. Sorry, for whom I had voted. I replied that as a member of staff I hadn't been able to vote, but had I done so, I would have voted for Henry Davies' impersonation of Henry Harman, as I thought he was amazing, and very funny. I asked my questioner whom he had voted for.

"Oh, easy. I voted for Mohammed al Qaeda.'

So there you are. If the Taliban are surfing the 'net tonight I'll probably have a a fatwah on me by tomorrow morning.

Sleep well.