I've been absent not through lack of time or desire, but lack of faith in my capacity to get the details right. I spent two hours on an entry on Thursday night, turning a mega-crap-tastic day into what I believed to be a good read with occasional sniggers and a few pertinent remarks on the ways of the world, plus photos. Then I deleted it by mistake.

Since then it's been an orgy of dropping, spilling, losing, breaking, kicking over, asking stupid questions that reveal I haven't been listening properly, and forgetting to post birthday cards. Not my finest hour. Hard to say who's most pissed off with me - me or them. Possibly YD.

So let's draw a line under all that and start again tomorrow, shall we?