Once Mr T had challenged me with this week's cross word ("Synagogue Singers (6 letters)"), we got onto the subject of the mechanics of the accumulator bet in horse racing (Mr T being partial to a flutter every now and then). I found myself taken back to a Friday afternoon maths class as he explained how the odds compounded as each race unfolded, and how he assessed each part of the bet...but still wasn't entirely clear by the end (I fear the fault here is with the pupil and not the master...), or confident I knew how to place one.

Sardines still seem strangely in short supply on the shelves of both Tesco and Lidl, but everything else made the basket, and I was soon back to test whether I'd understood everything from the earlier lesson...