Speaking to the keeper of the purse strings today, he said, all full of slyness, "We were sorry you didn't make it to the after show party. But perhaps you were otherwise engaged".

I explained that i'faith, I had been cat-sitting on the other side of the city to the after-show party and had ill-fancied my chances of getting home in the tiny small hours.

"It was a shame you didn't make it. We missed you." Oh so penitent now that he's not hounding me for this and that.

I was tempted to say that he might have thought of this before his days and weeks of rudeness to me. But I bit my tongue. Probably my most useful asset.