Peter Rhodes on a space odyssey, a flint axe and victory over an electricity bill

The money has arrived but the promised letter has not, possibly proving the words of Elton's song: “sorry” seems to be the hardest word. Mind you, it's not as hard a word as that place in Wales, LlanfairpwllgwynyoustandbythesignwhileItakethephotogogogoch. Or for that matter, the blood-pressure medication, Bendroflumethiazide which is commonly prescribed but rarely remembered.

So victory is mine. Or sort of. E.ON have sent me another batch of transactions dating back to 2022 to prove their figures were right. As before, they can be easily understood by any accountant working for E.ON, but hardly anyone else. The energy firm may be sorry but I see no sign of them changing their ways.

However, 50 quid is not to be sneezed at, especially if you kid yourself it's a sort of winter fuel payment, to make up for the one we've lost. Guess how many logs £50 buys? Fifty.

“It's not as happy as Nasa is making out.” So says an unnamed space pundit describing the plight of Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, stranded on the International Space Station (ISS) after their eight-day test flight to the ISS in June went wrong. They will be in orbit until a rescue craft can be sent in February. Nasa's official image is of two plucky and highly-trained Yanks smiling through adversity. The rest of us pray for the best as this scary space odyssey unfolds.

And off to cheer the runners in our local half-marathon. About one in three of the male runners had a beard. It all looked jolly macho and roguishly intellectual but I'm reminded of the late, great critic A A Gill who warned of “beards as a substitute for thought".