Hello. Hello. Well, I'm going to start with a confession.

And that confession is, I forgot it was podcast day.

Mm-hmm.

And I'm not quite sure what to do because I'm under-prepared.

Now, I understand that if you listen to this with any regularity.

The notion of me being prepared

will seem strange to you think. Surely you're never prepared. It's a stream of consciousness.

And to some extent that's true. But the secret bit is it's a stream of consciousness prompted by

bullet points. Right, right, right. And stream of consciousness prompted by bullet points.

Right, right, right.

And I ain't got no bullet points today.

And that leaves me in an interesting position because do I lean into that and just say, look,

I'm really sorry.

I know Annabelle's come prepared.

I know we've got some email.

Let's go with that.

And then you'll just be getting the juicy stuff and no fat.

Or do we make it a fishing expedition and see what comes out of my head?

With the knowledge that, when it is prepared, it's often inane and lengthy.

If you're asking me, I say, let's see what happens.

Okay, first thing then, as I was in a flap when you arrived, I went to read some clippings that you had sent to me and just to

attend to a little errand. And when I came back, the two of you were talking about Advent

...