…when on Bastille Day (Vive la République by the way), I would have been getting down with Shazbop to celebrate her birthday, probably at a gig somewhere and there would certainly have been lots and lots of hilarity and fun.

These days things are a lot different. Instead of getting down, I’ve been getting up a ladder and spending a couple of hours scraping a hundred and fifteen years’ of paint off the balusters on our staircase after work. It takes about two hours to do two and I’ve now done a dozen, a newel post and string. There are another two balusters and another newel post to go before I can start the clock again on the rubbing down, waxing and polishing of the same. By my reckoning that’ll take another two evenings of a couple of hours each because they are the least accessible and my stubborn fear of heights will not be quelled. There has been no hilarity, no gladrags, no stilettos, no lippy and no dancing. Ah well, there is always next year.

Still, at least I can start it before 6pm - it’s so unlike the old days…another demonstration of how life has changed.