Light relief

There was a whole page in the local paper about Dean today, which made me smile. And then on campus I bumped into someone else who knew him and - like so many of us - was just stunned by the news of his death. We both agreed though that things like that should be a wake-up call to all of us as we really don't know what lies around the corner.

It's good and important to be concerned about the 'big' stuff and to be politically active but we also need to make time for the littler stuff, the fun stuff and to remember to lighten up a little.

Our office definitely lightened up today as my colleagues set to with the christmas decorations. It's all looking very, er, bright. Here we see Betty Windsor who lives all year round on the windowsill, waving gently, joined by Flightless Bird who has made a bit of an effort (aided by me) and is standing guard to prevent her from even thinking about delivering any kind of speech to me and my colleagues.

Flightless Bird has a mate, Eunice the purple Unison pig, who is currently sat at the foot of a bright pink christmas tree on one of my colleague's desks. I'm not sure what Eunice thinks about that.