The Saracen's Head, in Old Amersham. And it's not at all bad, if you're after a straightforward pub supper with friends, as were we, last night. Thus my apologies, lest you should have been one of the 24 who logged, unsatisfactorily, on last night. Unpretentious, but the food is adequate and the beer's not bad. I suspect their wine list is perhaps not as extensive as that of Summer Lodge, in Evershot, which claims to have one of the finest on the planet (trust me, I know, we've been there, and seen it, and what's more, I wrote a review for the place, which seemed to go down quite well), but if you're happy with a choice of red or white (which is as extensive as the wine list gets in our Dorset village pub) it's fine. I've now forgotten where the parentheses started.

The Confirmation service has been the highlight of the day, with a fully-clad Bishop in attendance, complete with Mitre and crook, and, as always, your correspondent acted as the performing monkey on the Wurlitzer. I think I got away with it, despite the fact that the organ is a state of parlous decay, and one of the loudest stops on the machine is stuck fast. Oh well, no doubt my successor will have the privilege of playing on some superb, new, all-singing, all-dancing wonder.

As for news Newtonian, well, you can tell it's getting near the end of term. Sheet change, at this stage, tends to be a somewhat riotous affair, with plenty of noise, both from the inmates and the warders. Curlew narrowly avoided a libyan sweet-ration crisis, and when Japan met Russia in Heron, both duvet-clad and engaging in some form of bizarre mystical humming ritual, one could not but wonder.

Still, they're all quiet now, and have been, ever since I caught three of them reading by torchlight ten minutes ago. They thought I'd gone back into my quarters you see, as they'd heard the door go. Thing is, I didn't go any further and stayed on their side, and crept back along the corridor.

'Ah.' I said, in chilling, machiavellian tones. (Actually, it's difficult to say one syllable in more than one tone, but I'm not going to tell you that.)

That was enough to extinguish the illumination.

It usually is.

Goodnight.