We had two Christmas Eve birthdays to celebrate yesterday, made more special because they involved members of the same family: great-grandfather and great-granddaughter.

Ironically today, Christmas Day, I am pondering Easter eggs. This is not, as some might fear, the equivalent of the supermarkets' desire to confuse seasons and move us on from one festivity to the next with no time for contemplation. It is because I am thinking about...

  We often talk of 'lightbulb' moments or 'seeing' an answer to a problem; sometimes, that seeing comes gradually (a little like how energy saving bulbs take time to warm up and let the full light shine through them) and sometimes suddenly. If we have very little...