We’ve got a particularly heavy summer of Exam Results this year – Archie, hoping to read English at Glasgow; his brother Mungo, aiming for Ancient Greek and Arabic at Oxford; and their cousin Rachel, James’ and Cathy’s daughter, Chinese and Russian at Leeds. I hope I haven’t forgotten anyone.

Mungo, in Athens, sat the International Baccalaureate, whose results come in first. He needed an overall score of 39 (don’t ask me) to secure his Oxford place. His mother Helen rang up yesterday afternoon, her voice all shaky, and I thought the worst had happened. But no: he got 45, the top score, achieved by fewer than half of 1% of candidates. His place is secure. Oxford is used to clever young people, and can cut him down to size if that is required and, more usefully, introduce him to other clever young people who will be his life-long friends.

Meanwhile, Archie had a good first day as a cold-caller, with nothing to show for it. The men he was assigned clearly talked to him, but took positions similar to yours, Isabella (comment yesterday).

[Tamar, here’s a link to the site which makes me think our mother was right, and that the Wells Organisation pioneered this sort of thing in the ‘50’s.]

Tennis

Two very exciting matches today. Tsonga won’t be easy for Murray, nor Cilic for Federer. Southern Gal, I’d love to join you in a chat room on Sunday (comment yesterday) – assuming a least one of our heroes lasts that long. It’ll have to be something easy for old ladies to manage – but I do have Archie here to help.

And I got a couple more points of the Hansel hap edging done yesterday: OKC (Obligatory Knitting Content).