AnotherFineMess.SAnother Fine Mess! Candidates? Take your pick: Tory policy at large; the impending TTIP; the looming American election; Boris Johnson’s gob; Teresa May’s brain; 99% of the Knesset; the BBC, the Daily Mail, Simon Stevens, Atos “Healthcare. … No shortage of runners, indeed. Please feel free to suggest your own top three un-favourites.

Cagnolito.LBrief Encounter III (or is it VI?). The young Pygmy Dino who showed such great talent for storytelling in the recent Serpentine shindig, has encountered an equally fresh-faced Cagnolito Not-Quite-of Tindalos. An anecdote or two later the wretched hound is totally gobsmacked, utterly dazed and near blowing a fuse. There’s the mesmerizing power of a good yarn for you, chaps. Out there in the distance, Doña Alegrí­a looks fondly on the budding Svengali and thinks, not without some pride, that her assessment of the creature’s natural gifts were spot on.

ByThePond2Update 11/03/16 Have a break. Do not have a Kit-Kat. Have a stroll by the pond instead and talk to your favourite stroppy wee fishis. Life can be sweet, sometimes.