All right, of course I'm bound to mention it. Today in 1605, the Gunpowder Plot was rumbled. Actually it had been rumbled weeks before because the government, in the person of Robert Cecil, knew every move the plotters made. Just for the record, the original figure on the bonfire was not Guy Fawkes, but King James I. So if you're out cadging money from old ladies, you'll impress them more if you grab them by the lapels and snarl in their faces 'Penny for the James! Penny for the James!'
In other news ...
My dear old uncle Robert, the Press Baron, mysteriously vanished today in 1991. He fell (or was he pushed?) off his yacht off the Canary Islands. We miss him deeply, of course, but it's not many Heads of Sixth Form at Comprehensive Schools who own a luxury yacht worth several million, so every cloud ...
Sadly, today finds me back at the chalk face after a nice half term break. With the nights dark and the mornings gloomy, I am just waiting now until the shortest day, when things begin to look up again. Chez Maxwell, Dec 21 is one of our favourite days, when the world starts spinning back towards spring. My mother in law, not a lady with a very merry disposition, prefers the longest day as everything from there is down hill to darkness and gloom. She doesn't even have a glass, never mind how full it might be.
