This post is multi-thematic and more personal than usual. Between you and me, I’m trying to become an influencer. That career didn’t even exist when I left school, or I’d have asked the careers master how to get my foot in the door.

Personal thing No.1… Last year Mrs SG was using a tube of Cancer Council UV-protective moisturiser. When she couldn’t squeeze any more out I, out of curiosity, tested the weight of it in my hand and decided that there must be some moisturiser trapped inside. So I liberated it by slicing the tube in two (see photo) and weighed the halves properly: 36g. Mrs SG and I continued using it by scooping dollops out with our fingers and when we could scoop no more I weighed it again: 15g. So of the original payload of 75g, 28% was inaccessible without slicing.

In an earlier post I think I reported that a similar proportion of an orange was peel. I’ve had avocados whose stones seemed, Tardis-like, bigger than the whole fruit.

No.2… The Beatles’ first film, ‘A Hard Day’s Night’, was on the SBS Movies TV channel and I recorded it. Yesterday I settled down with a cup of coffee to watch it. I wondered if I’d respond to it differently after 58 years – and I did.  I found it so contrived, so shallow, so boring that after 15 minutes I stopped and deleted it. The film was the same, so I guess I’ve changed.

No.3… If you haven’t yet read Mark Haddon’s book ‘The Curious Case of the Dog in the Night-Time’ please do so now. It’s brilliant. It took me 3 years to read ‘The Pickwick Papers’ and less than a week to read Haddon’s masterpiece. The story is told by the main character: a 15-year-old British boy with Asberger’s Syndrome. If you’ve ever wondered how someone with that condition sees and experiences the world, this book will tell you.