[curmudgeon rising] never give a half-way reasonable speech

Fellow curmudgeon

I’m not in a good mood. Actually, I’m anything but gruntled. What started it was that speech I gave last week to help kick-start the new uni and tele got involved and I had to go to teas and dinners and things but worst of all, it appears I complimented the Minister for Education’s wife on her good looks by mistake [well she was a looker] and she decided to add me to a list for tomorrow and another bl--dy speech I don’t need and I can’t, ’cause I’d rather be here sipping a whisky, ranting at you [and my stats are down today] and I’ve just looked death in the face on the roads on the way home but that’s a separate post. And the thing is, I have absolutely no idea what they want me to talk about at this conference or what conference it actually is. My interpreter Leila just phoned and she doesn’t know either but we’ll still have a nice cappuccino and struedel tomorrow at the Pyramid before we find out.