This month I was going to look ahead at 2010 and consider what might lie in store for us all.

If I had done that, no doubt I would have looked back in 12 months and realised it was a stupid idea with my 'predictions' way off mark, thus allowing me to join Alistair Darling and his annual Budget GDP growth projections of late (which, as you may be aware, have often been dismissed by many economists as being totally unrealistic).

The great news is that I have a good excuse to avoid all of that dry talk.

The arrival of my baby daughter just before Christmas!

My wife was due to give birth on January 19th, but baby decided to come early. Here's how it all happened…

21st December, 3.30am

I was woken to the words "My waters have broken"!!!

Being in a state of shock, I confirmed to my wife that this was definitely the case (she didn't want to look).

'Operation Baby' was now in full swing…

Bizarelly, my wife had packed her hospital bag the night before (did she know?) so we were pretty much 'good to go'.

A quick call to the hospital confirmed that we had to get down there pronto as the baby was a month premature.

We drove to the Royal Victoria Hospital in Newcastle at 4am, which incidentally is a great time to travel

My wife was 'plugged in' and the monitoring started. By 6am she was moved to a delivery room and the birthing ball was put to good use.

Fast forward to 2pm and we now had the gas and air and diamorphine, much to the relief of mother-to-be. Labour was really motoring now and at 5pm the midwife said she expected baby to arrive by 7pm.

Well, she was spot on! At 6.27pm Ava Isabelle was born, weighing in at 5lb, 10. Mum was totally exhausted but absolutely delighted. I'm sure you know the feeling if you're a parent.

Here's Ava a couple of days later.

Mum and Ava managed to leave hospital on Christmas Day, so it was certainly the best Christmas present one could hope for!

Since then, the last month has been one of those learning curves that I'm sure will continue forever. But the alarm calls at 2am have been well worth it

Q. I have 2 personal pension plans and am thinking of taking the benefits from these in the near future. I'm 52 now and have read that the age that I can use the proceeds from these plans will change in April 2010. Can you tell me more?

A. Yes, you're right, the rules will change at the start of the next tax year. At the time of writing (January 2010) you are able to take the benefits of your personal pensions from age 50. On April 6 2010 this will change to age 55.

So, if you think that you'll need to utilise the proceeds prior to your 55th birthday, you'll need to take action now. And by now, I mean immediately, as you'll need to submit all the necessary paperwork to your pension provider asap - they'll need sufficient time to process all the paperwork prior to April. Also, don't forget that if you are purchasing a pension annuity you can shop around all providers for the best rate by using the Open Market option (OMO). 

One alternative to an annuity is to utilise Unsecured Pension (often referred to as Drawdown). This is where you can take your entitlement to the 25% tax free cash lump sum, with the remainder of the fund continuing to be invested (preferrably with the right amount of risk for your comfort zone). You can elect to receive an income from this fund subject to Government limits. 

The good news is that the lower limit is zero so you don't actually have to take an income. Do bear in mind though that Unsecured Pension should only be used by those with a minimum pension fund value of 100k.  

This week we have a guest article from specialist dental solicitor Edwin Ross. Edwin looks at a new twist for the sole practitioner - Who will get the practice if you die before retirement?

Take it away Edwin…

Are you a sole practitioner?  Have you ever considered what would happen to your practice in the event of your death?  Under general dental law, as a sole practitioner, on death your estate has three years to find a buyer.  But what if you have an NHS contract?

In those circumstances, your local primary care trust is obligated to provide continuing service for your patients. 

Your NHS contract is terminated seven days after your death, unless the PCT agrees with your executors to extend that time for three months.

The PCT can opt to extend this period to six months if they know of another contractor who can provide services you would have provided, but for your death.

To extend this PCT agreement, the BDA recommends: ‘In order to obtain this agreement, the personal representatives have to confirm in writing that they are employing or engaging another dentist or dentists, to provide units of dental activity, which would entail employing a locum’.

This means that during an initial period of shock and grief, the personal representative(s) (which is likely to be the dentist’s widow or widower) will have to contact the PCT/LHB to gain their written agreement for continuance of contract.

For sole practitioners it is therefore recommended that their personal representatives are aware that they need to contact the PCT/LHB (include contact person and telephone number) within seven days and that the PCTs/LHBs written agreement needs to be obtained.

The PCT/LHB can also agree (but is not obliged to do so) that the contract can be continued for a further period of up to six months following the end of the three month period. 

The only reason for such an extension is that the PCT/LHB thinks that another contractor may wish to enter into a contract/agreement to provide the services. 

This obviously covers a situation where the practice is being sold and the PCT/LHB agrees that it will commission a service from the new owner (which may not necessarily be on the same terms).

In the event of your death, the continuance of the contract process is not at all geared to protect the goodwill value of your practice, or the interests of your family.  Organising a locum to cover your contract is a major responsibility but a short term palliative.

Making personal representatives (widow/widower or grown up children) aware they need to act quickly under tragic circumstances puts a huge responsibility upon the very people who need protecting.

To organise a locum, get PCT approval and decide how to proceed with the practice within three months is asking a lot of the family during a difficult time.

To avoid this situation, there are alternative possibilities available:

1. Set up mutual agreements with another trusted local NHS sole practitioner, either on a temporary basis to protect the practice on death or a binding agreement for the surviving dentist to purchase the deceased dentist’s practice (perhaps with each of them entering into a minority partnership in the other’s practice).
2. Forming a limited company to hold the NHS contract during your lifetime. This may not be acceptable to the PCT.  The PCT may require conditions to control the shareholding ownership of the dental limited company. Ensure a non-family member is appointed in your will to be a special executor, to appoint a locum and secure continuity of the practice, deal with the PCT and to seek the sale of the practice on the best possible terms.

The importance of making a valid will is abundantly clear.  By planning for your death, and appointing executors to ensure the continuance of your practice you are protecting your business, and your family.

Without a will, until the probate court has granted letters of administration to the next of kin, no one has legal authority to make decisions about your practice.  By the time letters of administration are granted, it may be too late to protect the family from losing the value of the asset, whereby the PCT would allocate your patients around other NHS practices in the area.

Edwin Ross is the founder of Edwin Ross Solicitors. You can contact him on 0161 720 7200 or email.

Key Considerations

Hi, it's Ray again. I guess the easy part is reading this article. Just thinking about the implications should motivate all dentists into exploring their options and then to take action if necessary.

I encourage you to give Edwin a call to discuss your situation if you're concerned at all. Edwin has kindly agreed to speak to any readers of this newsletter without charge, so it's a great opportunity to pick his brain. Take action and call him today!

As I write this, I am stranded at home in the Northumberland hills. Looking out over the valley into the village of Rothbury, it is a picture of almost pure white.

The view would grace any Christmas card, and I am reminded of talk in recent years of 'we don’t really get bad winters like we used to'. I have even said this myself, and it is a big reminder of how important it is not to take nature for granted!

Charlotte, our daughter just turned 12, is very happy with the snow. Her school has been closed since Monday and there looks to be little prospect of going back before next week.

Of course it is great fun to pelt snowballs at Daddy, and it is lovely to see the enjoyment she gets sledging with best friend Zebbie.

I had to smile - nay, laugh out loud - when the subject of climate change was on TV the other day. Apparently, the very ‘super computers' which predicted a 'BBQ summer', and a mild winter, are the ones which have predicted that we will be burned to a crisp by 2050-2060. I will say no more!

Looking back at 2009, there were lots of highlights for Ray and myself. For Ray and his wife Laura, they were blessed just before Christmas with the birth of their first child Ava.

Ava was a month early, and as you can imagine it was a bit fraught, but all is well. Ray of course is very happy but very very tired!

In no particular order, here are the a few of the highs and lows that occur to me that happened in 2009:

Highlights

• We are helping more and more doctors and dentists with their financial planning. It is very satisfying to make a real difference to people's lives, and January has started with a bang as I have agreed to work with 5 new clients
• There is a huge amount of talk in financial services about how to change from commission based salespeople to fee based planners. This is because by 2012, all advisers have to achieve certain advanced qualifications, work in a certain way and charge fees. I myself need a couple more exams, but we made these changes six years ago!
• Raised over £700 for the Alzheimer’s Society by doing the Great North Run
• Collected 46 Xmas gifts for the Salvation Army to give to children in needy families
• Did not have any worried clients thinking about selling their investments in January to March when the market kept going  down. This is because of the way we advise and construct our risk assessed portfolios, and ensure such monies are for the long term. Since March, portfolios have increased markedly
• We believe in passive investments, and it’s nice to see that the message is getting to across to many, with index type funds becoming more popular
• Making steady progress with my novel about Robert The Bruce
  with ‘only’ 4 years to go!
• My Dad's eye operation has worked so far, meaning he still has some sight
• Little Ava decided not to wait!

Lowlights

• Bankers illustrate their massive greed with utter contempt for the tax payer
• Ditto MPs and MEPs
• The Financial Services Authority has failed on so many levels, and have awarded themselves ever bigger salaries
• Apparently our local council has also decided to increase their pay by 20%
• The same council fail to plough and grit our hill until our constant complaints shamed them to take some action
• The 'government' have said that they are the only ones to get us out of the mess they have created
• Taxes will have to rise because of their incompetence
• When Blair became PM in 1997, 1 in 7 worked for the government - last year it was 1 in 4
• The number of spindoctors employed by government has more than doubled
• Sunderland football team show their usual consistent  inconsistency 

I could go on here but I won’t!

Let’s hope 2010 shows a steady improvement in all our lives, and Ray and I wish you all a very Happy & Prosperous New Year.

Q. I keep reading about 'Wrap Platforms’ in the press, and have noticed you also use them for your clients' investments.

My own adviser says he prefers to use the 'tried and tested' insurance companies for my ISAs and Pension policies.

What are the main advantages of using this way to manage your investments?

A. This is a subject that is being talked about far more. We have covered this in previous issues and you can read these articles below#. Since then the various Wrap Platforms have continued to attract more and more of the share of the investment market.

One of the companies we use is called Transact, which has been in business for over a decade, and the main benefits we find are:

• all your investments in one place making admin easy
• access to specialised low cost passive funds that in the past were only accessible to the super rich
• totally explicit and quite often lower costs
• easy to pay agreed fees to your planner / adviser 
• it puts YOU in control of YOUR money
• discounts for larger portfolios

We note that your adviser prefers to stay with what we call the 'old world' by continuing to use Life Company funds. 

We agree they are tried and tested, and that is why we hardly ever use them!

# Article 1
# Article 2
# Article 3 
  

Regular readers will know that after extensive research and much experience, we favour passive investments. That is to say that our clients will accept the level of return that fits their appetite for risk over the long term. In addition, we can access institutional funds instead of retail funds and reduce costs which result in 'performance drag'.

This way of investing is backed by investment guru Warren Buffett who said:

"Most investors, both institutional and individual, will find that the best way to own common stocks is through an index fund that charges minimal fees".

Those following this path are sure to beat the net results (after fees and expenses) delivered by the great majority of investment professionals.’

In many cases we also find that the new client does not need to take as much risk as they are doing, and we can reduce the risk whilst still allowing them to achieve their goals in life.

However, there are still many investors who are not aware of this, or who feel that they can genuinely beat the market in the long term despite all the evidence to the contrary.

Many of these investors will use well known investment managers with household names. Well, an article in the press came to our attention recently which, putting aside the passive/active debate, we feel is quite shocking.

We will not name this company, but it decided to float on the London Stock Exchange. It was valued at £676 million, despite losing money last year, and having debts of around £300 million.  

As a result of the flotation, the two key fund managers received £15 million & £9.5 million! The rest of the employees then got £14 million in Christmas cash, and also have something like £70 million in shares.

So, what about all the investors who have given their money to this firm in the hope that they will perform. What did they get?

Well, many of this company's funds have languished at the very bottom of the performance tables.

It looks like the familiar story of growing their own wealth whilst totally ignoring what should be their real remit which is growing your wealth!

Of course, this story of greed is not unique, but adds to our determination to operate as we do now by largely being able to ignore this type of company, and always putting you the client first.

In a similar vain, we met new clients recently who had getting on for a million pounds in various investments such as ISAs and Pensions. Their main remit was to get organised and develop a strategy to be able to work part time from their early 50s.

They had used a standard commission based adviser up until now, but found that he did not contact them very often unless they wanted to buy another investment. This is very common, but what shocked them was that they were not aware of the considerable amounts of commission the adviser was taking each year putting aside new investments.

This is called trail commission, and is typically 0.5% of the total investments held. The insurance companies and investment companies (like the one above) pay this automatically to the adviser. So what it boiled down to is that this adviser was being paid something like £5,000 pa from their investment pot for…nothing!

If he was giving a fantastic service with regular reviews etc then you could argue that is one thing, but as is only to common, this is not the case. We find that what particularly galls new clients is that they have no idea that they are paying this money out!

By the way, if you have bought products in the past directly from the investment company, you may find that this 0.5% that the adviser would normally receive is simply absorbed by the company.

Key Considerations

When you work with an adviser, make sure that they are fee based and will carry out the work you want done not only now, but on an ongoing basis.

You then agree with your adviser what fees you will pay to get this service - this should be a written agreement. But if all they talk about is investments, and it's a fee not a commission, then get another opinion.

Action Point

Make a list of all your investments and ask your adviser or company what costs you are paying annually. If you find, like many investors,that you are paying out hundreds or even thousands of pounds a year, what are you getting for this?

If you would like an impartial opinion, contact us.

Last weekend my wife and I took our daughter Charlotte to visit London. Charlotte had expressed an interest to see the 'bright lights', and Xmas seemed a good time to go.

She particularly wanted to go on the London Eye, see the London Dungeon and do some shopping. I also suggested an open top bus tour - weather permitting.

Well, we got the train down on the Friday, arrived at 9pm in the hotel, and after a bite to eat hit the sack. Up early on Saturday the rain had held off so we went for the open top bus tour. Even after living in Kent for many years we had never done this. It was really enjoyable, but very very cold!

The girls moaned a bit, but seemed happy enough, and the commentary was excellent. Oh the things you learn. Then we passed the London Dungeon, and Charlotte changed her mind about going in. Too scary apparently!

As I am writing a novel about Robert The Bruce, as we passed Westminster Hall I was reminded that this was the very building that fellow scot William Wallace was taken to to be sentenced to death in 1305. A little further into the bus tour, we then passed a pub called the 'Hung, Drawn & Quartered, where Wallace was killed in this very way.

Many of you will remember the Mel Gibson film Braveheart, and although this film got a lot wrong historically, my research has shown that Wallace and Bruce were incredibly brave and determined individuals. They were fighting to save Scotland against massive odds from Edward Longshanks, a terrible adversary, and went through hardships we would find hard to imagine today.

Back to the 21st century!

Soon we passed the London Eye, and decided to go the following morning. We eventually hopped off at the Sherlock Holmes pub, and had some hot food to revive us. I also took the opportunity to sample some real ales - in the interests of research of course

Unfortunately I was then dragged to the - SHOPS! They chose Covent Garden (originally Convent Garden was run by nuns), and senior and mini management took over. I just did as I was told, and pretty soon the girls had an impressive array of carrier bags.

There was also a few jugglers and comedy acts performing as they do, and I must say it was almost bearable as we homed in on a hot mulled wine stall.

Then it was back to the Hotel and a nice meal, and on the Sunday morning we went on the London Eye. There was only one small problem - it was absolutely pouring with rain. Anyway, after a bit of a queue we got on, and off into the sky we went.  

Now I must say at this point that I am not good with heights. Over the years I have learned to 'face the fear and do it anyway', but this very high wheel really tested me. It is 450 feet high at the top, and seemed to me to be every inch of this as I grimly smiled at Charlotte, who was fine, and my wife Aly who took lots of photos and really enjoyed it.

It was a very interesting 35 minutes, and although the rain and mists restricted the views, it was very impressive. Back on terra firma I breathed a sigh of relief, and we then had to make a dash for the coffee shop with the rain still lashing down.

Then a taxi back to Kings Cross for 3 o'clock, and our train back to Newcastle. Perfect timing, a nice sandwich and cup of tea, and with a novel to read, all was well. An hour later we were a few minutes out of Peterborough when we felt a small bump, and the train slowed to a stop. After a minute or two, there came the announcement that someone had committed suicide by standing in the path of the train!

What strange feelings came over us. Disbelief, shock, and compassion for the person who had been in such despair that they were driven to such an act. And what about about the poor driver?!

Knowing we were going to be delayed for quite awhile, I went to the buffet car to stock up on a few snacks and drinks. Talking to the barman, I couldn’t believe my ears when he informed several of us that suicides were almost a daily occurrence!!

Incredible!

We eventually got back home a couple of hours late at 9 o'clock, whereupon Charlotte announced that she had just remembered some Maths homework that was needed for the next day!

Oh well.

Snippets of News

Ray and I have quite a bit of CPD to do each month, and on one of the recent events we attended talking about the economy, there were some interesting facts and predictions (predictions that may well be right or wrong!).

- 7% of the population earn over £100k pa
- 3% of the population earn over £150k pa
- When Tony Blair came to power in 1997, the public sector employed 1 in 7. It is now 1 in 4
- The average public sector worker now earns £2k pa more than their average private equivalent
- After the election, VAT may well increase to 20%
- China is talked about as massively influential for growth.  But it accounts for only 4.6% of GDP compared to the USA at 27.35%. At present rates of growth, China will overtake the USA in 2050
- It is estimated that over the last year the stock market was 79% driven by sentiment. Over the last five years the figure is 18%
- 5000 bankers will be paid more than £1m this year

Q. As a Surgeon with private earnings, my accountant has   mentioned that instead of saving for my tax bill in a   deposit account, I could 'have a gamble' by placing these monies into Premium Bonds. 

What I want to know is, what can I expect as a return on my investment? I know deposit rates are not very good at the moment, but is this route worthwhile?

A. We are glad that your accountant phrased this way of saving for the tax man as 'a gamble', as that is what it is.

Perhaps the most you can expect from an easy access account is 1-2% net (or offset mortgage perhaps 2-3%), but at least you know what you are getting.

There's nothing wrong with 'having a go' with Premium Bonds of course, and there's a calculator you can use #. Briefly, if you invest £30,000, your chance in any one year of winning at least: 

£1m     is 1 in 110,088
£100k   is 1 in 22,402 
£10k    is 1 in 1,584 
£1.5k   is 1 in 285 

If you invested your £30k into a 1.67% net paying deposit account, then you would receive around £500 per annum. The chances of getting this with the Premium Bonds in any one year would be around 1 in 4. 

Over to you!

We have visited this subject many times, but make no apology for doing so again. If you currently have investments in Unit Trusts, Stocks & Shares ISAs or Pensions, or are planning to do so, then reading this article could save you a small fortune over, say, 10 - 20 years.

Let's take a look at the typical costs you are faced with when you invest your money:

Initial Costs

This is the percentage of the investment that you pay up front and is taken from the product you are investing in.

If you are using a Financial Adviser, we believe that the maximum percentage you should pay is 4% of the amount you are investing, with a sliding scale down to 1% for larger sums, regardless of which type of 'product' (pension, ISA, etc) you are investing in.

Ongoing Annual Costs

These are not just the Annual Management Charge (AMC), typically 1.5%, but since there are also other administrative costs such as trustee fees, legal and auditors costs etc, the figure to illustrate these is known as a Total Expense Ratio (TER). This can be, say, another 0.2%, and so you would think that the overall annual cost is therefore 1.7%.

However, there is a missing cost which can double or even treble (or more) this amount, and it is very unlikely you would ever know about it, as the information tends to be buried in the paperwork you receive.

These are costs that the fund incurs for trading - buying and selling stocks - known as Portfolio Transaction Costs (PTC), OR Portfolio Turnover Rate (PTR) and they are not included in the TER.

The more active a fund manager is buying and selling stocks, the higher will be the costs incurred. They include:

1. Cost of Commissions - Stockbroker's charges for executing and then clearing a trade
2. Spread Costs - The bid / offer spread is the difference between the prices at which shares can be sold and bought
3. Market Impact Costs - Costs which are incurred when the price changes as a result of the effort to buy or sell that stock
4. Cost of Tax - In the UK there is stamp duty to be paid with trading
5. Opportunity Costs - This is the cost of a delayed or missed trade

One of the amazing things we find is that not only do investors not know about these extra costs that have an impact on the returns you will receive, but some financial advisers do not know about them either!

If you have an adviser, make sure you ask them what the Portfolio Turnover Rate is on your funds.

So, how can you find out about these extra costs? Well, they are in the fund's prospectus, and will show for the previous year what percentage of fund assets were traded. The FSA estimates that a 100% fund turnover in an equity fund in a year would cost the fund around 1.8 per cent. However, on a Fixed interest fund, costs tend to be much lower.

Latest calculations from Financial Express Data has shown that the average UK Equity fund to February 2009 showed a figure of 95% fund turnover, meaning that these trading costs would add circa 1.7%to the annual costs of the funds.

It should be noted that in some markets, such as Emerging or Far East funds for example, the PTR rate can add much higher costs than this, even as high as 9%. So why are these costs so important to know about? Very simply they bring 'performance drag' to the way your money grows. Let’s add these costs up:

AMC -   1.5%

TER -   0.2% (say)

PTR -   1.7%

Total - 3.4% pa

So, your fund will have to perform at 3.4% pa to even stand still!

That is one of the main reasons why there has been a lot more interest in index and passive funds, which have much lower PTRs, and usually lower costs generally.

So how would the costs look on a typical passive equity portfolio? We presume here that you would like guidance and advice on your investments, and use a fee based wealth manager & planner who will look at all your requirements, and have £150,000 to invest or transfer.

You might expect that this would be at least the same in costs, if not
more?

Well, they should look something like this:

AMC -   0.4%

TER -   0.2% (say)

Admin - 0.55%

PTR -   0.2%

Fee -   1.0% (financial Planner)

Total - 2.35% pa

As you can see, this service should work out with less costs, but deliver far far more to you, the client. As mentioned in previous articles, this includes advice such as why not spend more or pay off debt etc.

When you perhaps read other articles on investing, costs are mentioned, but the greatest emphasis is on performance. You will see adverts in the press no doubt boasting of the last 12 months performance, or that they were 'top quartile' for the last two years.

They want you to buy their funds because they 'outperform the market'.

However, as academic research constantly shows, very few funds do this year in year out, and although you can LOOK BACK and see a few funds that have done this out of thousands, try to do this LOOKING AHEAD!

As Ron Ross, Ph.D., writer of ‘The Unbeatable Market’ said - "Active [investment] management is little more than a gigantic con game". We feel that an adviser who is able to give you access to funds with lower overall costs, and is able to deliver a better investment experience on a sustainable basis should be rewarded for this.

Invariably, we can also tell a new client the growth rate they need on their investments to achieve their goals that they have identified with us. Nine times out of ten we can reduce the risks they are currently taking, as the financial map we create gives us this capacity. We believe achieving your goals whilst taking the MINIMUM risk is a very sensible approach.

As an example of how 'performance drag' can affect the returns you experience, a fund with costs that are, say, 1.5% per annum lower over 20 years, and using a 7% gross projected growth rate, you would find that the resulting fund would be around 30% higher.

To see other articles on this subject click here

Key Considerations

Costs are a huge part of what you need to consider when investing your money.

Make sure you, or the adviser you are using, conduct full research so that you can make a fully informed decision.

Nearly 100% of new clients we meet have these expensive active funds.

Learn about the Passive alternative for a better investment experience and your peace of mind.

Action Point

Look at your investments - do you know the costs you are paying that will reduce your returns?

If you would like an impartial opinion, contact us

What a month!

I've just about recovered from a bout of tonsillitis (more of which later) and have clocked up a few miles 'touring' the UK.

The first port of call was the Dental Showcase exhibition at the NEC. I attended on the first day and as I pulled into the car park, the heavens looked quite menacing, so I was glad I was about to spend the day under a rather large roof!

Even with talk of an economic downturn, all the trade stands appear to have been taken and as the day wore on they all appeared quite busy - although only they will know whether any business was being generated or not…

As you may be aware, I sent an email in advance of Showcase and asked if any readers that were planning on attending wanted to meet up for a coffee.

I managed to meet 8 readers (individually) for an informal chat and it was great to hear about their views of the dental world.

After meeting up with other familiar faces, I hit the road just before 7(after walking to the car through a downpour) and arrived back in Whitley Bay at about 11pm.

The week after Showcase I was in Sheffield presenting to a group of 30 dentists, organised by Medi-cruit.

And this is where the health problems started…

The day prior I'd been feeling rough but decided to soldier on and take nurofen and cough medicine. I thought this strategy was working quite well, that is until about an hour before I was due to talk.

As the 4 presentations started (15 minutes each, I was due on last), I had to leave the room to try and pull myself together.

When I was announced to the front to start, I told the audience I'd try my best to get through it.

Thankfully they were really kind and put up with my coughing and spluttering. By the end my voice had been reduced to a whisper (I know, some will say it's better that way…).

Then there was a 2 hour meal to get through, which I just about did, mainly in listening mode.

Leaving at 11pm, the 2 hour drive back up the A1 definitely felt longer than usual and I rolled up at home at 1am.

The next day the GP confirmed tonsillitis, so I was confined to bed for the rest of the week.

That meant I was due to miss a workshop that we were running in Carlisle, organised by the Northern Deanery. However, with the adverse weather on the west coast the event was cancelled until next March.

Of course, the joy of having a laptop means that being ill and not able to work is nothing like the good old days, so by the time I was back at the office I hadn't really missed anything.