Hello John

Not the picture - that's Bot. Ellen's invented room tidying robot which is her homework for a school project on the Victorians who were, as we all know, famous for inventing robots. Aye.

This whole Friday thing is just falling apart. Up at six and off to Glasgow today. What's that? I'm supposed to sleep til 9 and loaf on the sofa pretending. If that wasn't bad enough I'm working tomorrow in Dundee. A Saturday!

Home to a new motor but it's the same as the old one except with more things to break, which we'll no doubt do. I thought about keying it just to give the process a kick start and get over that first scratch or alloy-scraping trauma. Maybe a trip to Glasgow will see to that.

And poor wee Ellen's looking like a boxer with her conjunctivitis. There's going to be tears on Sunday if she misses her pal's party.