Well, my friends, notwithstanding the continuation of the plague on all our houses - and I hope everyone who is currently suffering will get well soon - today has been a very good day. Two excellent academic scholarships have been won, and richly deserved they are, too. I won't the HM's thunder by giving you the details, but if you should be reading this and directly connected to either of the victors, then Mrs C and I offer our heartfelt congratulations.

It was Fragrance Friday tonight, and you would have been amused, as I was, by the dialogue in the clubhouse.

"So, what did you use, then?"

"Me? Oh, have a whiff of that: it's pure hazlenut. No, sorry, I mean coconut."

"Huh! Smell this: herbal essence with a touch of oil (of something obscure)"

"Well, I use Australian gold blended. It's very rare."

I should add that the invitations to indulge in the aromas of exotic fragrances were extended to the residents' peers, and not to me. The place smelt like a house of questionable repute, but it was good to know that the residents were fresh and clean. (Well, clean, anyway.)

I spent a happy ten minutes flexing my fingers over the keys of my baby grand tonight, with the result acting like a siren call to the inmates, as I indulged in a slection of tunes based on flashy scales and arpeggios in various keys. (Or, as one HM i worked for called them, 'archipelagos'.) A Curlewite entered in and enquired as to whether I was 'making it up'. I replied immodestly (but truthfully) that I was.

"Sir, you really are talented, aren't you?"

I wish.

Bonne nuit.