Five years ago, when I first started my current job, I bought the seminal textbook on diabetic retinopathy screening from Amazon. Today, the professor who wrote that book approached me over coffee and told me how well I present on the subject. So as half-decades go, it hasn't been entirely wasted.

Obviously when I began the day, the only thing I planned to present was a claim form for expenses, but that's what happens when you sit at the front of the room on a national training course. Everyone else takes one step backwards, and you end up being elected as spokesman.

To be honest, I was glad to be standing up and speaking at the front, as it diverted attention away from my bag, which was giving off a radioactive green glow at the time. I'd popped out at lunchtime and bought Amelie a set of four plastic frogs which are supposed to light up in water, but I must have spilt my drink on them as I walked back, because by the time I entered the lecture theatre, I was flashing like a sex offender. Every time they lowered the lights to examine a slide, I looked like I was having my own private disco. In the end I was forced to smother my bag with my coat and hope nobody noticed the glow.

But despite that, it's been a good day, which I rounded off with a stroll through the grounds of Birmingham Cathedral...

I was standing outside Louis Vuitton when I took that, next door to Austin Reed. Which demonstrates my main problem with Birmingham city centre: not enough charity shops.