There seems to have been an Easter rush of people either migrating their blogs to new platforms or deciding that it is time to 'draw stumps' or 'extinguish tealights' on their virtual worlds.  As a result my sidebar listing has been updated a bit, though unless you use it often you maybe won't notice what's changed.

I have also discovered that Scottish Power takes far too seriously the implications of Matthew 6:3 as we are now on their third attempt to sort out my fuel supplies.  Fortunately their staff are very friendly and concur that it is all very muddled up... in the meantime I try not to waste too much of earth's resources.

People have commented to me that NHS health-care in Scotland is cheaper (at point of delivery) than in England... well I'm not so sure having just been given a quote by my new dentist (nice man, shame about the gag-inducing X-ray equipment) for a few minor repairs.  The Scottish payment system is certainly more detailed, being piece-rate rather than banded, but will actually cost me about £20 more than the same treatment in England.  So, my conclusion is that the costs are actually about the same, just distributed differently, and on this occasion I lose out slightly.  I'm sure it'll all work out in the end.

Anyway, after a week of doing very little, it is good to be back to work, good to catch up on those weird jobs all ministers end up doing for which no college course can ever provide preparation, and good to know that in the good old UK we have so much by way of good infrastructure that we have the audacity to moan about it when any tiny glitch happens.