It's almost a week since anyone said anything, so I'll break the silence. I think I've moved into the 'finishing off projects' phase at work before my last day in the office on 23 December. How strange this is...

Not at all unusual if you are a proper professional, pen, which I assume you are.

I'm definitely demob happy now. I'm finishing off other people's jobs and bringing mince pies into work. I don't even like mince pies that much.

It gets very quiet in here over the weekend. Does that imply that most of mc5s posts are posted when the poster ought to be working?

[Knobbly] I am shocked, shocked to hear such a suggestion!

[knobbers] How very dare you??!!

I'd really like to express my hurt at the suggestion but, since I'm at work at the moment, I can't.

[Knobbly] Now look what you've done! Everyone is too ashamed to play any more. There has hardly been a move in any game for two days.

Shhh! Some of us have work to do, keep the noise down.

BOO! .....apologises to neighbours.....

We've had a lot of dealings with tradesmen recently. None of them too disastrous (although there is still one job outstanding in the bathroom, scheduled for 8am tomorrow). But when something really good happens, I get so pleased. Our roofer was scheduled to check a few things out tomorrow morning in advance of the down-tools period (I had visions of a waterfall coming though the extractor fan on Christmas day). He phoned me up just now saying "I'm in the area, shall I come now?"; leapt onto the roof, found everything that was wrong with it and told me it would be thirty-five quid to fix. It was done in about the time it took me to get to the cashpoint and back.

Oh, and when I told him that one of his rivals told us we needed a whole new roof, he looked at me like I was mad and said, "Nah... this one will last about 20 years".

[rab] Is your bathroom fixed now?

This is my last day at work...