Friday 7 February

Today saw the opening of the Winter Olympics at Sochi, Russia. It went nearly flawless, except for the  snowflake that refused to open. And the fact that one of the torchbearers was the alleged girlfriend if not wife of Russian leader Vladimir Putin. Sigh. Rumours, rumours, rumours.

I was quite horrified to see the extent of flooding southern England. Now that villages in the Somerset Levels are slowly being submerged, we also learn of flooding in counties further east. It is suggested that the government was slow to act on the situation, which first arose in December. However, the weather situation is quite extreme, and I just hope they manage to get everything under control again soon.