Welcome, my dear new Followers! Mrs C and I were delighted to meet you all earlier and we hope that you will feel very much a part of Newton. I'm sorry you received my letter a little late in the day, but such is the volume of cyberspatial traffic that hurtles through the offices that my own submission was not awarded the priority I might have liked!

Frenetic, wasn't it? It always is, but then, that's SF: the fast-moving carousel onto which we all have to jump at the beginning of the new year, and which we all learn to love and cherish. And now that it's gained momentum, it will simply keep revolving, and, I hope, allowing us all the privilege of a happy and trouble-free ride. This is our 17th year here, and we love it: I'm sure you do, too.

Usually, I write this blog up after I've extinguished the lights; tonight, because the freneticism (a great word, even if doesn't exist) I thought I'd better write it earlier than usual, so that I can 'focus' on the various activities (most of which will revolve around clothing) of this evening's lodge time. And by the way, I'm sorry if I seemed so hopeless if any of you asked me about clothing issues: Mrs C is omnisicient when it comes to such things - and I'm, well, not.

I hope you liked the background music as you arrived; I tried putting on a CD which offered various classics accompanied by the sound of the Pacific Ocean, but the Obergrupenfuhrerine wasn't having any of that, as it 'sounded as if it was off-station the whole time', which resulted in my locating one of my favourite collections of music, that of the legendary Dave Brubeck. That didn't go down too well, either, so in the end I resorted to a collection of rather unimaginative orchestral works, which seemed to get the required nod of approval.

Enough for tonight. I hope you'll all enjoy my nightly ramblings, wherever you are in the world. And welcome, by the way, to our new Follower in Uganda! Thank you for making contact - via Facebook! (Yes, I do. I know, I know .... )

Until tomorrow, then.