Well all I can say is God bless America. Just when you think you're losing the war, along come the Yanks to save the day. It's like Christmas 1941 all over again, albeit with more singing animals. So following yesterday's canine revelations, I'd just like to thank Kathy for Bringing Home a Baby Bumblebee. It's obviously something they do quite a lot over there. Although why my cat's singing it, I have no idea. The label says he came from Leeds.

Anyhoo, solving the penultimate musical mystery of Amelie's Singing Animals has obviously made this Christmas Eve quite special, but to be honest I'm struggling to enjoy it. Having spent part of the day transporting fifty boxes of sodium chloride to the second floor of the Sussex Kidney Unit (I think they're planning some kind of salted offal dish for Christmas), I eventually finished work this afternoon, and returned home to start packing for my festive break in Essex. At which point I immediately came down with a cold. Three hours into my Christmas holiday and I'm ill for the first time in months.