October was a very busy month. Ages ago I agreed to run a course on vascular endothelium (the innermost lining of all blood vessels) for the Sutherland Cranial College of Osteopathy. One of osteopathy’s founding principles is that ‘the rule of the artery is supreme’ and this is an update on what that means. I’ve taught on this topic before but it is a hot topic for medical research so I knew I needed to update my work. I also needed to expand it to fill the day. All went well but it did keep me fully occupied. Then, thanks to a chance remark I made on Twitter, I was asked to write about the endothelium and consciousness for a philosophy blog. My post was published 13 November and is titled “Hearts and Minds: The Mystery of Consciousness”. A couple more distractions ensued and now, finally, I can get on with the edit. Yay! I’ve been hard at it all day today and have set myself a deadline of the end of November. Which is quite soon. But I have so many other projects in the pipeline that I just have to get on with it and, anyway, we will at last be able to set a publication date when this draft is completed. And now I have to change into ’70s gear for a party. Where are those silver boots and blue eye shadow?