The Rules of Play. Really?

Sorry to have disappeared from the conversation so abruptly. Something disagreed with rather a number of tummies tonight. I trust it came from the kitchens and is not something we'll all be passing around for several weeks.

Also. Did you realise there's a game they're playing this year with Bertie Botts beans? I think it's the sort of thing older adolescents play with intoxicants, something to do with having to repeat tongue twisting rhymes without error, where the penalty for failure is eating great handfuls of the things. I've just had a third case of a child presenting with simply horrifying ulcers in her mouth from indulging in this way.

I'm not sure I've any very good advice to offer for ways of managing men in professional situations, except to be confident (project it whether it's truly felt or not), to remain unflappable, and to be absolutely in top form at every moment. Without, of course, ever appearing to upstage any of them.

It's a bit like tightrope walking in a high wind, I imagine.

I do value the fact that in my daily work I don't have to spend much time in the company of such creatures.