It's Sophie's birthday today! And, in fact, part of my lack of blogging for the past week has been having to keep under wraps my latest Silly Project prepared for today as a birthday present, to which Andy will no doubt wonder how much time I have on my hands. (The same amount of time as you, mate )

Produced together with Owen, Scotland Today, Scotland Tomorrow rested on a simple concept: if you don a suit and carry around a couple of cardboard props, it shouldn't be difficult to convince the good people of Cambridge to donate a few minutes of their time to compare Gordon Brown to Sophie, the latter of whom morphed into increasingly absurd celebrity. ("...training to be the first Scottish astronaut...") Sure enough, several kind souls did indeed agree to take part, no doubt partly lured by the offer of a free chocolate chip cookie, and to them I remain eternally grateful. Especially the cheerful Norwegian couple, as well as the dude who agreed to stand on a photo of Brown halfway through the interview to signify his distaste. Go go fake news!



In non-fake 'actual events', Leonard and Sebina returned to Cambridge last weekend to take me out for lunch and argue about politics 'n' stuff - thanks muchly to them. And on Wednesday night we properly inaugurated a real Yuletide spirit by going to the annual Footlights panto, which was (as you might expect) lots of fun. (Did you know that I once saw Jim Davidson in panto? It was probably the single biggest deviation by my mother from the principles of good parenting, and equally inexplicable, since she's hardly a fan of him either. Maybe it was a test of taste.)

And speaking of deviations: I now have two black-tie dinners in a row, after which I might just have to compensate by walking around in pyjamas for a week. Tonight is Sophie's birthday dinner which offers the utterly intriguing ability to meet her parents (who most probably do not, as our film claimed at one point, "own six percent of Scotland"). Tomorrow is far less excusable - I'm going, in a 'once in a lifetime' kind of spirit, to the CUCA Chairman's Dinner. Wearing a Ken Livingstone badge as a protective political talisman, of course. Bring on the quail...