The wife of a good friend in the US died suddenly on Friday evening, while I was sitting down to dinner with David Trimble and others in Edinburgh. The shock of the news of Katherine’s sudden death pulled into sharp and painful focus, the general unimportance of so much in this life, the purposelessness of work (by comparison) and the often forgotten benefits of having close and loving people – friends and family – around to help us through our daily labours and darker moments.

Katherine will be forever remembered as a kind and beautiful lady, one taken well before her time. My sympathy, inadequate as it is to be of any great support, goes out to Ian and all the family.

So, when we see fit to grumble about life’s trivial matters, I for one will always try to remember what is most important in this world. Love and friendship; seeing the good in everything; helping others. 

Murphy’s Law was implemented big time today – wet and blustery as it was here in Belfast, it was the first day in years of owning a mobile phone that I left the cursed thing at home. Given the day that was in it, I was late – nearly 20 minutes late – for picking herself up at the usual after work rendez-vous point. The very bloody day that a mobile phone would have been very handy to reassure her good self that I had come to no harm and to calm me down! Murphy you were a bloody eejit- perhaps that’s why non-Gaels refer to it as Sod’s Law. Grrr! 

We are a nation of ‘complaint avoiders’, in that we rarely tell the person most likely to be able to do something about whatever it is that is annoying us at the time (take poor service in a restaurant)…but boy can we moan about it at length to our friends afterwards.

So let’s start with the basics – what is about modern toilet roll holders? Inevitably these bloody dispensers are mounted about 18 inches off the floor, which means getting your hand in to try to find the end of the loo roll is fraught with peril. And why is it that the end of the roll is always hidden several inches inside a large drum, making it almost totally impossible to get at without personal injury? It’s crazy that every visit to the most private room in almost every restaurant, shop, theatre – and even the office – involves degrees of dexterity only possessed by Olympic gymnasts. Grrr!