You'd scarcely believe the rumours swirling through the strongsmell.com production bunker this week. Some wisacre thought it would be funny to post a sign on our shared bulletin board advertising his services:

Certified Babysitter seeks work.

Contact Ahmed at x. 2393.

Well, you can imagine the stir that caused. Everyone was all atwitter, wondering whether Ahmed's gambling debts had finally closed in on him and nattering about how, yes, he was a reliable and steady worker, but could he be trusted not to teach card games to the children?

There was more to the story, though. As it turned out, Ahmed wasn't looking for babysitting jobs for himself at all. His daughter had just completed a course at the Community Centre, and he was just spreading the word to help her to get started.

Boy, were our faces red!

After everyone calmed down, Ahmed explained that he wasn't in serious debt at all. He just owed a couple of thousand, was making regular payments, and -- not to worry -- there was still plenty of room in his budget for life's little extras. So, really, the whole matter ended on a wonderfully civil note.

We all ended up going across the street for lunch together, where Ahmed told us about his other daughter, who is 16 and works at McDonald's. Did you know that the special sauce they put on the Big Macs has paprika in it but no tomatoes? And to think we'd spent all these years thinking it was just ordinary salad dressing! Blush!

After lunch, we were going to go to the track. But Don said that would have been in poor taste.

This is why the flag has an orange stripe. To represent hope for the future. And also to stimulate the appetite.