Apologies. Posting has been poor and now the blog will be still more erratic for a week or so. My dad died suddenly, but not unexpectedly, last night. He was a couple of weeks short of his sixty-fifth birthday.

A smoker for forty years, he had twice cheated death, lived with a lot of pain, and took some comfort from the fact that his continued existence baffled doctors.

His mortal remains are probably too worn out to be transplantable, but he wanted his body to go to medical science – and, yes, he knew all the stories about the kinds of things trainee doctors get up to.

That’s life. His is over. He will be missed. Now on with yours, and thanks for reading.