A new villain and an old hero

What's happened to Romeo the robin, you may well be wondering. Well, he's gone quiet at night, which I assume means he's happily mated with Juliet and busy with paternal duties. Not that we've seen any young robins in our garden. However, his role as nocturnal persecutor has been taken over by... Brutus the blackbird. I've already mentioned how he woke Jess up early one morning with his alarm call. Well, now he's descended to new depths. He's now taken to doing it regularly. For example, this morning (AT 4 AM, WOULD YOU BELIEVE??) he started off with a sort of half-cock alarm, which was like a dripping tap, poop, poop, poop! And of course Jess went off barking furiously. Jane got up, and told her to be quiet - which she was. Then we nodded off. But Brutus hadn't finished; half an hour later he gave us a full burst of alarm and set Jess off again. Fie on thee, villain!

Now you may think I'm neurotic about these avian 'friends' and haven't learned the lessons of Springwatch. Well, all I can say is, 'Check this out: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8092479.stm .' If that's not malice aforethought, I don't know what is. Don't give me any of that territorial behaviour nonsense, Mr Packham. That's sheer malice. I think there's clear evidence of a global conspiracy - and Brutus is part of it.

This afternoon I had my annual visit to my consultant. Dr Donaghy, at the JR. It poured with rain and we had to park in the underground car park. The neuroscience clinics are on the top floor of the West Wing (not in Washington) and we didn't have long to wait. Dr Donaghy is such a nice man. He originally diagnosed my MND. Treats you as an intelligent being. He's very perceptive; checked my spasticity and suggested I try Baclufen to relax my leg muscles. It may turn them to jelly! And it may make me sleepy - in which case I'll stop. He reckons I'm irrepressibly optimistic.... I'm not sure about that but my life is not at all bad.

Tomorrow, I'm being interviewed and filmed for a DVD about assisted suicide. And then, it looks as though you see basking sharks on Springwatch in the evening, if you want to see what the one we saw in Wales was like.