To bed sober

... such a shock to the system that I wake several times, read listlessly and then turn out the light to try again.

Henry Green's 'Nothing', Christopher Hollis on 'Eton', Thurber cartoons; even one's reading at those hours is slightly surreal.

Suddenly I feel fit and alert and ready for a snack. I exit via the garden doors and walk round to the kitchen, collecting Sam en route who bounds snorting away into the darkness in ecstatic bewilderment at such rule bending.

Gunpowder Tea and Marmited toast as I re-read The Corfiot. Four things, according to one Paul Scotter, that I definitely don't know my mobile phone can do, including if I'm locked out of my remote keyless car.

Call home on my cell and hold the phone a foot or so from the car door. They press the unlock button to sound down their phone. My car unlocks. Rather good tip, as is activating reserve battery power by keying in *3370#. The sort of gem of info' that Eric Edgeworth would have up his sleeve.

An advert I'd not spotted at first reading: The Psychic School and the Esoteric School have a meeting 20-27 June 2008. Awaken to my Psychic and Channeling Abilities; Awake to my Life Vision and Life Purpose in Divine Union within World and Cosmos.

I put on the cans and listen to track 10, side 1 of the Frisell, 'A Change is Gonna Come'. Taken at exactly the right pace and Bill is spot-on with his tone. The band comes in at snail's pace and I marvel again at the magicianship of engineers like Lee Townsend who actually make or break these creations. Four minutes nine seconds precisely, the sax comes in and all of a sudden I remember dancing to it last night with a pliant and morose Diane. I suspect she would have preferred to have been asked to sway by a more sober partner.

I open up the laptop and there is a message from Dottore Baddely mocking me for swanking but being nice enough to pretend to like it.

The tea and toast take effect and I feel deliciously tired, but an email reply to something I sent comes in from Trish accusing me of being up late and carousing. I must reply before she herself goes to bed.