Norman Geras bought me dinner this evening. I accepted on condition that he let me do the same for him next time we met. More importantly he was excellent company and even more interesting in real life than he is on his ‘Blog—which is saying something. He is also taller.

This very effectively took my mind off a frustrating afternoon trying and failing to get somebody to sell me either 1) a bridge-playing computer as an increasingly belated birthday present for my dad and 2) a 35mm SLR camera that takes film—you know, the glossy stuff that changes colour on exposure to light.