Bank of Emma

Nice of my former colleagues to have a whip-round for me to help me in my straitened circumstances.

Only kidding! This was actually (and I'm not joking now) the final throes of the sub-editors' 'Christmas' meal, wnich was staged two months late at an Italian restaurant in Clifton, Bristol.

In fact, it was held such a long time after Christmas that I no longer work with them. And it won't have escaped the notice of the religiously inclined that this Christmas meal was held in Lent - which really is going from one extreme to the other.

Anyway, it was a very enjoyable evening and a real treat to be among these lovely people again. But I still came away with zero regrets about leaving daily newspapers far behind.