Roundup

What's happened to Nancy Banks-Smith? Since I linked to her as a funny woman, she seems to have stopped writing for the Guardian at all. The default tv reviewer these days seems to be Sam Wollaston, who's often quite boring. I only read his column if I've seen the programme he's talking about, whereas I'd read NBS's review of the testcard. I've already deleted Vicky, now will I have to remove her? I'm going to give it a while yet.

Meanwhile, another of the funny women, Ariane Sherine, has achieved quite some fame with the Atheist Bus Campaign, appearing frequently on telly. But unbelievably, she can't find a man, and has told the world, which has inevitably brought her loads of (possibly) unwelcome attention. She has handled it with amazing charm, though, and she certainly stays on the list. In case she reads this, here's another suggestion. Be like Eija-Riitta Berliner-Mauer, who was prepared to travel to find a solid relationship and take the roughcast with the smooth:

Like every married couple, we have our ups and downs. We even made it through the terrible disaster of November 9, 1989, when my husband was subjected to frenzied attacks by a mob.

I may be going back on the telly. There's going to be a new series of Only Connect. Because it's recording in March, they may not have time to find new teams, so will invite some of the teams from the first series back again. Maybe it's time to reinstate Vicky after all.

We seem no closer to a decision on redundancies. It's strange to be wishing for redundancy while the rest of the country is terrified of it. If it's going to happen, I need to start making plans. The best idea I have at the moment is to go back to college, doing a full-time MA in something literary, but I'm not allowing myself to spend any time gathering details until I know. Meanwhile our management seems completely unaware of the effects of the uncertainty on everybody whose job may be going, telling us nothing, nothing, nothing. Join my Facebook group: Let's find a million people who think this is getting ridiculous now!