Harrrington's - being the collected thoughts of the Hon Sec, by way of excuse and explanation.

  Thank you for those who have reminded me that, dues to a diplomatic necessity a few years back the Koi Carp pond is sovereign Japanese territory and so has begun the New Year a little over an hour ago. We will be keeping to the decencies of the thing and using Greenwich Meantime, even though the motion to move it to Greenwich Modetime was passed like AGM. As no one can work out what that means we will begin a burst of unwarranted optimistic cheering as near midnight as the 'Old Geoffrey' - the long case clock in the entrance hall can manage. This may mean we will be either ahead or behind the rest of London by up to five minutes. The Upper Billiard Room, having been part of the Independent Colonies since 1783 will have to wait for five hours before they commence 2026, according to the time they keep in Boston. The rumours, that one of the broom cupboards is part of the suburbs of Madrid is widely held but I have the Librarian checking that this wasn't arranged as part...

  When Windlesham came to elevenses and declared he’d been Whammed I had assumed he was tidily and taken to using an Americanism to cover the fact he had been having Pink Gins before the sun was not so much below the yard arm but positively trembling at the prospect of having to put in an appearance and was staying snugly in bed. This, it appears, is not the case. It was Finchley who tried to explain the rules.   Apparently, some popular crooners had written a song in which a chap, led astray, probably by a shapely ankle, declares that last Christmas he was rather smitten with a gel, but the little minx had turned to another, so this year he was going to find a steadier sort and commit himself to a romance more worthy of him.   I think I understood things up to that point. The point of the game, Finchley assured me, was to get through Advent without once hearing this popular ballad, and if you did so, you could spend the rest of the Christmas season with a sense of well...