All the middle-aged married women at the conference looked so much bigger than they did this time last year. Puzzled at first, I eventually worked out that all of them were either about to give birth, or had recently welcomed a new arrival. It appeared that even I would soon discover the joys of motherhood.

Regardless of this news, once back home again after the conference I set about redesigning my knowledge management module. A young man from a consulting firm offered to present a guest lecture on text mining. The students would love this!

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The working week ended, as usual, with Any questions on Radio 4. This week was extra-special because the radio crew was on our campus and one of the panellists was my colleague AC.

As I took my seat in the audience I noticed that the producers were experiencing a problem with another panellist. A tall, slim lady dressed in orange Indian robes and a turban wailed that she was uncomfortable. When she started to climb down from the stage I recognised her as my dear friend VE. I left my seat to force her to return to her position for broadcast. My tactic was to remind her to be big girl: “Remember when you were little, came downstairs and was told in no uncertain terms to go back to bed? This is one of those moments. Get back to your seat and answer the questions like a grown-up”.