Last night went quite well, part from the possibility of sciatica. The seats and hard, the arms are confining and the talk was a decent length – not too long but still a bit troublesome for a man with a touch of sciatica. I thought I’d shaken it off but it’s been sneaking back. Fortunately it manifests itself as a dull ache, which is a far cry from the lancing pains I had a month ago. Less food, more exercise . . .

I managed to open a safe today. I’d opened it on Monday by using wedges and had popped the lock. There was nothing of value in it, so that was a waste of time. It’s only plastic – a piece of novelty interest from the 1960s. It’s also disguised as a book, which probably offers a much higher degree of security than the ageing plastic. For some reason one of the others decided to shut it again. I like to think it’s a tribute to my deft handling that this also allowed to lock to snap shut. Who shuts a lock just after someone has spent 5 minutes opening it?

Fortunately, there are only six possible combinations, and these were all listed on the accompanying instruction sheet. As luck would have it I had to try all six before finding which one worked.

I have just been reading a catalogue from a medal auction. There are some tremendous stories in there. Obviously you get stories of heroism and selflessness, but there were also recipients who were involved in a railway disaster, a murder trial and a fatal cycling accident in the 1890s – run over by a traction engine whilst out on his bike. The stories, as I have said before, are what interest me.

That’s all for now – it’s time for bed and I’m still struggling to recapture the old form where I could do 500 words on any subject, and do it quickly. Now I’m struggling to do 250 at twice the time.