I knew it was the moment to come out with something witty but firm. But no, there was nothing. My internal computer screen was blank. After an embarrassingly long pause, I finally did manage some sort of  response – a strangled trill of nervous laughter.

Thank God there’s a postal strike on.

2. Getting in a terrible tangle with Corduroy Mansions. I am loving volume two, The Dog Who Came In From The Cold, which I am being fed in 5 chapter chunks. But then, in the post last week, I got the first Corduroy Mansions book (via a different postman!!). I thought it was a rush copy of Number Two and started reading. Now I am existing in a terrible time lag, veering madly from book one to book two. One thing I have noticed, though, through my confusion, is that the women are all pretty unsympatico, being universally grasping creatures, with a surprisingly high proportion of them being desperate to marry the hapless 50-something hero. I wonder if the lovely AMS is, or ever has been, by any chance, a single 50ish chap beset by females? Hmmmm ……

3. But I really shouldn’t say a single word against the House of Corduroy, as the lovely Telegraph has given me a little online link to one of my posts, quite low down on this page in the bit called More On Corduroy Mansions:  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/corduroymansionsbyalexandermcca/

I’m very thrilled!