I have a small amount of work to do. At least I have some irons in the fire. Or at the very least, I have a paper clip and a couple of twigs to rub together.

It has so far necessitated getting up, dressing up a bit, looking professional and going to a meeting – and that hasn’t happened in a while I can tell you.

It has also required some very rusty mental cogs to work again and as things stand, it has been gratifying to realise that they can get into action, albeit a bit slowly and after some significant displacement activity.

Yes, yes I did need to go for a very long walk and make a chicken pie, but eventually I got down to it.

And indeed it felt good.

All I need now is the go ahead to do the full piece of work, some promise of money and someone to do it with me.

It is not that I cannot write an interactive case study for 100 PhDs, I have done it before, many times and with some success I can modestly assert.

But I am someone who works and thinks and gets energised into action so much better in a group of people than one my own.

This of course, has a direct bearing on the fact that I have not generated much at all in the way of work – I need some workmates and that isn’t what happens when you are self-employed, on your own, in Deepest Sussex.