I stayed at Leftwing Idiot’s flat last night. I settled down in the familiar surroundings of his spare room and looked out of the window as I usually do. But a layer of thick cloud meant I didn’t get to see my old friend cartoon star. Instead, and much to my surprise, my tics called longingly for the lamp-post.

The lamp-post in question is the one I can see from my own bedroom window at the castle and it normally gets a lot of abuse:

lamp-post, stop glowing ostentatiously.

lamp-post, the trees laugh at you because you’re short.

lamp-post, defend yourself.

But tonight I found myself shouting for it fondly: “Where are you lamp-post?” and “Come here lamp-post.”

I even asked Leftwing Idiot to, “Go and get the lamp-post” for me.

He failed to do this of course, but I could hear him laughing away in the other room, which was a nice sound to settle down to sleep to.