Life Lessons from the past few weeks

• Crochet is really tricky if you attempt it immediately after applying body oil.

• Juggling does not get any easier if you fail to take the balls out of their tube from time to time.

• It is inadvisable to succumb to a rush of enthusiasm for juggling if you've just returned from a première, full of bubbly.

• I need to hoover (vacuum) under the bed.

• Improving my German is doing weird things to my French. When nattering away in the latter, I now find that while the words come fairly easily, they are curving themselves automatically into German phrase and sentence constructions. The result is an occasional frustrating brain-crash, and a pianist wondering slightly bemusedly whether I was German...

• A short holiday with friends in a chaotic family house overflowing with children, animals, noise and hospitality definitely counts as a change that's as good as a rest.

• But goodness, my flat is nice and quiet!

• It is possible to cycle slowly and infinitely carefully through the icy hard-packed snow and not come to grief (although double-layered gloves are a must otherwise your fingers freeze).

• It is also possible to skid and crash spectacularly on the grit that's left over once the snow has thawed. Nice serious Germans picking you up, however, may fail to appreciate the irony and therefore why you're laughing like a hyaena. Good thing I have no reputation to lose!