Yes, yes, I know, I know. Maths as well as geography. Of course the answer should have been one in the front and one in the back - as Hannah's text to me this morning pointed out .....

Well, day one of the inspection seems to have come and gone without incident. The interestingly-named Mr Kevin Whatley came to have a look at Newton tonight (I forbore from enquiring whether he found it easy to combine his acting life with his inspectoral duties) and seemed to give us the thumbs up. He liked the 'relaxed atmosphere', he told us, and he seemed happy with the structure of the nightly programme. We were able to incorporate shoe-cleaning night, of course, it being a Monday night, and clever Mrs C had a brainwave. So she sacked her husband from his role as shoe-cleaning judge and invited Mr Whatley to, er, 'inspect' the row of shoes and to select four worthy winners.

There was much light-hearted banter between him and me (yes, those are the correct pronouns, in case anyone's wondering) about the training that he and I (!) had gone through to achieve such distinction. He played along tremendously, and managed, I thought, to combine gravitas with levity to just the right extent.

It's really been a day of meetings with the inspectorate, of which I've been required to attend three. I know many of you have many more than that each day, so I'm not going to complain - especially when my journey to work involves a walk of about two minutes, door to door!

All is well here tonight.

Until tomorrow, then,

Bonne nuit.