… what happened this morning but I was up and about quite quickly once I heard the alarm, and switched it off promptly.

And later on after having washed and sorted myself out, sitting down at the computer in here, I noticed that the time was 07:54 – 6 minutes BEFORE the alarm is due to go off on a Sunday

Sure enough, at 08:00 the alarm went off So what was it that had awoken me so decisively earlier? The alarm is set for 07:00 on six days of the week and at 08:00 on a Sunday, and nothing has been changed in that respect for weeks if not months.

But it’s no use my saying that I don’ have a clue, because you lot have known that for quite some considerable time and don’t need me to repeat it.

But while we’re on the subject of repeating … "well, one of us is" – ed … that late night that I had on Friday, I repeated it again last night. Once more, the effects of having a mid-afternoon sleep meant that despite being exhausted, I wasn’t tired enough to go to bed.

After I’d finished my notes and done what I needed to do, I dictated another pile of radio notes. And now I’m not all that far away from being up-to-date – at least, in that respect.

Practically everything that has been written has been recorded except for one or two special projects on which I’m working. They’ll be receiving attention over the next week or so as I try my best to push on. I just hope that no-one else famous dies so that I won’t have anything else to distract me.

Eventually though I managed to find the energy to cross the Great Divide of several inches and fall into bed. And I’d hardly even started my little night-time mantra before falling asleep.

From what I remember about the night it was pretty calm and peaceful. I can’t recall being disturbed at all. That is, until I had that strange, phantom alarm call that awoke me like that.

It’s totally bewildering, this kind of thing. As regular readers of this rubbish will recall, I’ve had these phantom alarm calls before but usually, sooner or later, I’ve recognised them for what they are.

This is the very first time that I’ve been so completely taken in by a phantom alarm. I’ll have to carefully check the time each morning before I leave the bed because I could have done with spending that extra half-hour or however long it was in bed.

Having had a good wash, I came back in here and had a listen to the dictaphone to find out where I’d been during the night. I was doing something with the local police, investigating a road accident. We were on our way to inspect a particular site and someone made a really witty remark to me about something or other which at first glance didn’t seem to tie in with anything but when we were there inspecting this site one of the boys walked past carrying a certain object that looked like a part of a sheet of metal. Someone announced what it was and its correct name was actually this posh name that someone had used for something else earlier in the chat so it became some kind of clever pun or witty joke and I wish that I could remember what it was because it disappeared out of my mind as soon as I picked up the dictaphone, this particular word

As it happens I can remember this dream really well and the word that was used was actually on the tip of my tongue but it disappeared the moment that I put my hand on the dictaphone.

This morning I actually upset the nurse. He breezed in asking me all kinds of silly, frivolous questions that I was in no mood whatever to answer and he soon got the message. That early start had really knocked me for six.

After he left, I had my breakfast, read my book for a while and then came in here to watch the football. This morning it was Clyde v Stirling Albion in the fourth tier of Scottish football.

Clyde had 99% of the play and spent most of the match camped in the Binos’ penalty area. However, there were just two breakaways as the Binos roared down the field into the Clyde half each time and they ended up with just two shots on goal.

Anyone care to predict the final score?

However many people there were inside New Douglas Park I really have no idea but I bet that every one of them left the ground shaking his head.

There has been quite a bit of editing done today.

The two “extra tracks” for two of the programmes had their notes edited and the programmes completed. The first one ended up one minute short and the second one was six seconds over.

None of that is any problem. Where it’s short, I just lengthen the gaps in the speech by pasting in some silence, and where it’s over, there’s always tons of superfluous text that can be edited out without losing any of the meaning.

Then there were the two much longer notes resulting to almost-complete programmes. One of those has been edited and the two halves of the programme assembled. The eleventh track has been chosen and edited and the text written. That will be dictated on Saturday night next week

Had I had the motivation I could have finished the other one but I had a little … errr … relax. This morning took far too much out of me

As well as that, I made some pizza dough today seeing as I’d run out. Two lumps are currently freezing and the third became the base for tonight’s pizza. And the dough was fantastic. It rose even better than the last batch did and that was quite impressive.

So having written my notes I’m off to bed now in the hope that there will be no confusion about the alarm. I don’t want another morning like this. I have my Welsh course next week and need my sleep.

But that dream about me helping the police. I should have been a policeman because I spent a lot of time helping Cheshire Constabulary with their enquiries
One of my friends was hobbling around Crewe Town Centre once when I caught up with him. I hadn’t seen him for a while
"Where have you been these last couple of weeks?" I asked him
"I’ve been helping the police with their enquiries" he said
"So why are you having trouble walking?"
"I’ve helped them so much" he said "that I’ve got two broken toes and truncheon marks all over the soles of my feet."