4 January 2012

As it turned out. Michael was marvellous and had observed much of what goes on in the morning so the getting up and so on followed very much the usual pattern except we deferred breakfast, shaving and teeth cleaning until after the girls had gone and we had breakfast together in the study.

As threatened,. we then started on the examination papers. Although initially I found I could make the odd indecipherable mark on the paper where they were keywords which I was looking for in the answer, they were such a scrawl that in the end I marked each subsection in my head and then Michael recorded it on the schedule which I have prepared previously. Fortunately, between Paul (my successor in China) and I, we had prepared an excellent ,very comprehensive, marking schedule which made the process so much easier, but nevertheless I certainly could not have managed without Michael and there is no way’ my lovely’ would have got involved. It took us the best part of the day to complete the actual marking leaving some tidying up and a clean typed schedule to prepare tomorrow. In fact, we only managed to get into the breakfast room at about 5:10 with Paula due to change me for bed at six

As we had really deserved a drink and I was going to enjoy a cigar, we decided against hurrying the whole process and Paula was excused much of our normal duties and just put on my nightshirt leaving us with our champagne and cigars in the breakfast room.

It certainly had been a very long, hard day during which I had taken no rest whatsoever and I was very encouraged to have got through it without any exhaustion, which I hope augers well for the future.

Make managed to work out how to operate the oven and produced a possible supper. The evening was a short one as everything was much later than usual and after watching minder on television Sam arrived to put me to bed. Unfortunately, last night Sally came to be instructed on the slightly complicated process of settling me down after fixing the respirator and then making the bed on top of me. We understood therefore that she was coming back tonight, but in the event that the Sam. We have to play it by ear, so to speak.

Michael was his usual proficient self and managed to do all the little things that had to be done in locking up and so on . After I had been settled down. All went well until two or three o’clock in the morning. when I panicked slightly, convinced that the respirator was not delivering enough air. I was really struggling to breathe and was having to suck air in rather than letting the respirator gently do it for me. I pressed my panic button and Mick appeared like a genie and went through the whole process of getting me up, sitting me on the edge of the bed and removing the respirator to check it out before settling down again. Then, thank goodness, it seemed okay and the rest of the night passed uneventfully.

I have the perfect anecdote to do with marketing questions. Click here, to read about the Brilliant Student. thank goodness, not one of mine.