Small change

H.I. is not allergic to peanuts, but she hates them so much that you would think that one would be fatal to her. I think this goes back to the days when cheapskate bakers were allowed to put them on Danish pastries and pretend they were flaked almonds. I wonder how many deaths that practice caused. Maybe people were not so allergic in those days.

I absent-mindedly heard of a campaign to abolish the use of the comma in writing the other day. I know that I tend to overuse commas, (see?) but to me they are essential for a good flow of uninterrupted reading. Not using commas can sound like talking until you run out of breath to me.

I would not mind so much if they banned semi-colons even though they can be useful for lists when a comma could be confusing. In fact I might even support a ban if it would stop people from using them as cheeky-wink emojis ;

Do they teach punctuation in schools these days? Up until recently I thought not, but then I learned one or two rules concerning the use of punctuation in text messaging amongst young people - not that young people use texts to talk to anyone under the age of 50 anymore, but I think they have generally dropped punctuation and capital letters in any form of writing.

Somebody told me that you only put a full-stop in a text if you are angry with the recipient. That's a bit like using the full first and last name of your child when telling them off: Thomas Stephenson! Come here immediately!

Monday will soon be over. I will be working as normal, but I don't begrudge an employee for taking the day off. Initially I thought that the 10 days of mourning period was something that everyone thought should happen as a courtesy, but then I had not heard of the five mile queue that stretches to the South of the Thames. Apparently there is a queue that you must join in order to join the main queue. This must look so very British to everyone else in the world.

Think of Mahatma Gandhi's state funeral (although more people turned up for the film than for the actual thing) and think how they ripped the cloth from the corpse of the Ayatollah Khomeini to tear up as  keepsakes, leaving his white cadaver in its underwear going down the street. They didn't queue for 24 hours to do that. 

Did you see the 'stinking pen' video clip? Poor Charles. When he told a member of the public that he had been dreading this moment all his life, he was not just talking about the death of his mother. After 70 years, his life will no longer be his own. Balmoral will be his refuge as it was for the Queen.