Well, has life been dominated by great leaps forwards on the creative front in the last month ? No, it has not. My printer/scanner died. So I bought a new one. Could I make it work ? No, I could not. Now, even though I depend on a computer for emails and scanning and sending drawings, I do not love them. Even the linguistic changes they have wrought, like “power down” instead of “switch off” irritate me. As for “boot up”. Huh.

Doubtless some would say that this is an age thing. It probably is. I dislike gadgets. However, in my frustration to get my new printer to do what it says on the tin, and having consulted the yard- square instruction sheet AND the online guidance and got precisely nowhere, I sought help from a very knowledgeable, computer-savvy and kind neighbour. No joy – and this guy understands Quantum Theory, for heaven’s sake !

So in the end, I had to call an engineer who does little else but rescue ignorant folk like me. He did, but it took him nearly an hour. If it took him that long, what chance did I have ? If computers were cars, we’d never go anywhere.

Really ? What about driverless cars ? I hate the idea and always have a snigger when one crashes. But that’s the age thing again, isn’t it ?. I like driving, but I can understand why lorry-followers in sensible cars on motorways – you know, 55mph, inside lane, 10 feet behind an artic bound for Glossop – might like the idea. If you don’t mind going to Glossop.

So now its back to 2018 calendar cartoons. After a couple of dozen you do get a bit tired, but I’m nearly there now.

Then – reason to be cheerful – the “NOT the Royal Academy Summer Show” cartoon exhibition PV on the 7^th of June at the Chris Beetle’s Gallery in posh St James’s, which I banged on about last month, and more immediately, a visit from a heating engineer because our boiler’s just gone phut. I bet it’s the computer.