Not a word I use often, but worth a respectable 68 in Scrabble today.

Listened to the Philip Pullman Dark Matters plays on the Radio 4 web site today. A fascinating and thought-provoking exploration of our relationship with the supernatural. Pullman's views on the "death of God" and his insistence that fiction should carry a "moral punch" and encourage questioning of established views have interested me over the past few months and has been reported in several newspaper and radio interviews. This excellent radio adaptation of the Dark Matters trilogy has been a good introduction to his work.

We flew back to the UK this morning, picked up the car (outrageous taxi prices today) and drove back to Cambridge. It's taking a while to warm the flat, and it needs tidying.

This evening, I enjoyed a wistful Arena programme about Radio 4's Just a Minute. Sensible, but surprising, was the extent to which Kenneth Williams' part in the documentary was reduced in proportion to my memories of his dominance of the quiz. He nevertheless hovered in the background, a magical presence. A sense of Williams' presence was almost palpable, a will-o-the-wisp.

Can you spot Evil Edna?

Off to bed, tired and glad to be back home.

The Borsetshire volcano is rumbling. The eruption must surely be imminent - Christmas day?

I'm missing the Archers.

I know I could listen to it on the Internet, but I prefer to listen on Radio 4. I'll just have to wait until Sunday's Omnibus edition.

There was much more snow on the Jura Mountains today, but it poured with rain on the CERN site!

I didn't attend the conference today, and spent my time instead trying to get some interesting work done for a customer. The others spent the first half of the day interviewing. What arguments we had after the interviewees had all left! One personality really divided us all - I think he's great, but nobody else does. Anyway, we've made an offer to one person, who I hope will accept.

Growing a business is a constant struggle. Dunno why I do it.

I heard on the radio that there has been an earthquake in Borsetshire. Rumblings and tremors have been building up for months. In yesterday's quake, at least two homes were said to have been destroyed.