Milk which is just about to turn is akin to that moment spent on the cusp of failure in a dulled and fettered relationship.

Successful writers say you should never work from a desk with a view, and the view I have from this one is a huge distraction. There's a garden bursting with fresh vegetation, and just beyond the high wall at the end of it, I can see the sign of the local pub across the road. Distractions, eh? I'm so easily led.

After two years in the red, we had a substantial turn between '04 and '05, and the first quarter of '06 is similarly positive. We are very encouraged about the long term.

I won't eat any cereal that doesn't turn the milk purple.

There is of course, never any point in crying over spilt milk - the key is to learn from failures and then to keep going.

Here I sit, beneath the large window of a first-floor Georgian flat, exploring the corridors of my sordid imagination for comedic words of beauty.