Thursday: blog-day. I try to listen to Question Time on Thursdays too so if I haven’t posted my blog by then, the sight of David Dimbleby prompts me.

But this week I’ll be far away visiting my disabled mother, so I’m leaving a message for DJ to post on my behalf. If you’re reading this, he’s negotiated his way successfully and pressed the right buttons. He hasn’t done it before so I’m leaving it fully prepared in draft form before I go. No, don’t get me wrong, he’s perfectly capable, I’m sure – I just don’t want him spending hours juggling hyperlinks and searching the net for other blogs or sites. Not when he should be doing safer things like perching on a plank balanced between two stepladders painting a twenty-foot high ceiling and oiling a stained glass window. Both clamouring for attention if we’re to be half-way sane for Christmas.

Me? OK, I’ve hung the odd slice of wallpaper but mostly I’ve been meeting before-the-end-of-the-year deadlines. Writing an article (for a specialist journal) synthesising that stack of novels including dementia I’ve been warbling on about. Editing chapters and project proposals. Exploring different avenues for promoting understanding of the big ethical questions thrown up by modern medicine. Making new contacts, opening exciting doors for next year … watch this space. Anything‘s better than decorating!

Oh, and reading an amazing book my son recommended: Velvet Elvis, by Rob Bell. Strap-line: Repainting the Christian faith. It’s challenging. Not the kind of thing you gallop through. Beautifully written but big ideas that demand reflection. Odd really: it resonates with a lot of my thinking about how to understand the Bible and how to re-energise spiritual batteries, but I didn’t formulate my ideas until I saw them expressed so well. I’ve been boring on about it to DJ when he’s driving. Makes a change from speculating about my proximity to dementia, I guess.

I should be back in person next Thursday, trains, floods and God permitting.

Tags: Dementia, Question time, Remember Remember, Velvet Elvis