Sound bite

Walking past another boarding house early one morning this week, I heard what I first thought was a hoover - impressive, before breakfast. Then I wondered perhaps if it was a hair drier. Twenty minutes later I walked back again and it was still going on. Later, bumping into the housemaster, I mentioned that I couldn't work out if there was a serious bit of housekeeping going on, or if someone was being particularly careful over their personal grooming. It turned out to be hoovering - the aftermath of an Incident involving popcorn. My colleague was wondering whether to ban it.

I was happy to be able to tell him that Burr was leading the way: we've already had so much popcorn trampled into the floor that I've had to ban it upstairs. After a major spillage this morning it may have to be banned altogether.