Started the day in a meeting with Əli Kərimli, the embattled opposition leader of a country I deal with, whose plans for western support for his rise to power are surely doomed because nobody can spell his name. (Or his country’s name, for that matter.)

Then lunch with Vladimir Drobnjak, Croatia’s Chief Negotiator in its plans to join the European Union, who was in need of cheering up.

Then most of the afternoon spent on Cyprus, meetings with the European Commission and with colleagues.

That’s the kind of stuff I like. If I could do just that – interesting meetings with motivated people, who care about their subject but also feel that I can help them out – and leave all the management and editing stuff, I’d be a happy boy.

If somewhat less well paid.

Oh yeah, and a certain Brussels correspondent for a certain Northern Ireland newspaper offered to interview me, before getting a reply from the editorial department in Belfast to the effect that “ lives in Belgium” is Not News. Oh well.