I made a big mistake tonight. I had lots of time and a free-wheeling mind, ready to tap dance with an idea and turn it into a blog. Too much time, too many free wheels. I picked up a couple of blog file folders and started reading. Such fun. I read them all. So now it’s too late to write a whole blog unto itself So I‘ll give you a few leads and let you take them from there.

What if Ophelia kept a diary?

Malaprops (from the name of the character Mrs Malaprop in Sheridan's play The Rivals , 1775) I had a friend who was a Whiz-bang at them: dull as dishwasher; just give me the headlights'; making a mountain out of a molehole. In fact, I gave her word-slips to a character in a play of mine, and found it easy and fun to make them up.

On Dying After Your Time. Well, I guess Jonathan Swift said it all when he created the Struldbrugs (Book Three of Gulliver’s Travels), but more people are dragging it up now: how inconvenient it is to have so many people living after their time - or prime?

A corollary to this longevity thing is the fact that children today have more grandparents (and greats, too) than they have ever had before and there are generally more parents than there are children. That’s because more people over the age of 65 are alive today than have lived before in recorded history. I’m sure you have some thoughts on this.

Do your children know where you are?

Hoarding.

Downsizing (a favourite).

Dumpster-Diving (another favourite).

I’m going to bed now