Charmion's comment about Watson reminded me that one of our previous feline tenants tended to, erm, Use the bath when caught short. Curiously, he used to score a bullseye on the plug'ole, which was most convenient of him.

Stilly, re sulphites in wine: Thanks for the tip. There was me blaming the new pills (for gout) for my fingers starting to fray, which is particuarly annoying when the plasters get in the way of fretting chords.

Wood furniture: Physics in the University of Nottingham was built post-WW2, and kitted out with wooden lab benches. It was Decided that said benches weren't good enough, as they'd only lasted half a century of (ab)use; rumour was that Someone Important had banged his knee on a table leg when spinning round on a computer swivel chair. The metal replacements, which lacked front legs, were found to last all of six months before they started sagging under the weight. The engineering team were asked to fix them, and got roundly laughed at for buying tat. Were we going to give them the old tables back? were we buggery: they didn't want them, so we found them good homes.