Freitag 20 Januar

That's the date in German for anyone who doesn't know.

Today has been a funny day. It started with a phone call from Ban Ki-moon wanting a bit of advice - should he wear the dark coloured suit or the spandex jumpsuit?

I said that with the world beset by so many seemingly intractable problems perhaps it would be a good idea to try something new and Spandex may indeed be the way to go. If he takes my advice, tonight's news could be worth watching.

However, in the real world - it pissed with rain here except for when we went shopping and then it was sleety rain. It's great to be in with a mug of tea and dry trousers.

The flowers are Forsythia, the branches came from the gardening last week. They were popped into a vase and hey presto*, flowers a week later.

* Other discount supermarket chains were available during the 1980s