It was a quiet day on the phone today. In fact it was so quiet that I was able to mention the fact without the phone immediately ringing.

That was memorable.

This evening I went on the national Lottery site to buy tickets, and decided to have a go on one of the instant win games. I instantly won £20. It’s still a mugs game, and you never see a bookie on a bike, but for a moment I felt like I’d achieved something. I probably told you that I was in a syndicate when the national Lottery was first launched, and gave it up after several months, when i worked out that although we won a small prize most weeks, we were actually spending £6 to win £1.

Number Three event of the day was Number One Son and the Anti-Money laundering regulations. He had to be checked today as he is putting in an offer on a house. It turns out that his name sets alarm bells ringing and he is listed on a government database as a person of interest. It’s not him of course. He has a father with a popular name (it’s not common, it’s popular, as my mother once pointed out). Wilson is the 313th most popular surname in the world, which is quite good when you consider all the other possibilities.

It’s the sixth most popular name in the UK and, according to something I once read, the third most popular surname in the north-west of England. We also have a family tradition of using plain English names as given names, which means that although our kids have names that have recently lost popularity, they have names that were very popular in the last fifty years, so there are a lot of them about.

It’s a relief to know that money laundering and terrorism are prevented in the UK by a group of people checking a list. Slightly less impressive when he told me how to get off the list – you have to write and tell them it isn’t you and they will let you off. It’s a good thing that terrorists and criminals don’t tell lies or we would really be in a mess with this system of ours. Just a shame that our ex-Prime Minister doesn’t have he same regard for the truth.