The most challenging things in life are those that are neither black nor white. This is true in ones material life as it is in our dealings with people. I did a little game the other day where you give the three words that you hope best define yourself. After ten seconds of thinking I thought Clever; jovial and another one I forget. Later that evening I thought about it again and came up with Compromising; uncompromising; compromised. In the run of life you need to be able to compromise; there comes a moment when you must not compromise; modesty forces me to add compromised.

As I say, a lot of our difficult work is done in the intermediate zones. Take clothes for example. We all have clothes that are not yet dirty clothes but no longer clean. These are what I call my on the go clothes. But the question is, what do you do with the on the go? The shirt you will get another wearing out of; the trousers that are weekend wear. A jumper you can just sling over the back of the settee ; it is a classic on the go garment, and its presence on the settee back is accepted and acceptable, but shirts and trousers are not. My present solution is to put on the go material onto what I call my bushel. My bushel is actually one of those strange chairs that are meant to be good for your back which you kneel on like an upright altarboy on his hassock. This I no longer use for my back, I use it for my on the go. It’s not perfect but it’s the best I can manage. It’s a compromise.

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