Last night I attended a focus group for a company who are redesigning the website of a major newspaper .

It was good fun. They gave us quite a bit of wine, twiglets, crisps and nuts. Oh and £30. I was pretty happy. Simon B was there, whom I hadn’t seen in ages. I am sure I talked too much on the group and was a bit mean. I apologetically described the design most people preferred as a website for simpletons; the designers seemed to appreciate it, anyway.

Simon and his friend Roisin invited me to the pub afterwards and we had some very good chats (King Kong Good, Spieldberg God-like Genius, Brokeback over-rated). It turns out Simon’s mother is an ear specialist and will be in town at the weekend so I may go meet them on Saturday to discuss the situation with my hearing and the upcoming operation.