Some birthday presents really hit the spot, and my sister gave me a beauty this year for my new cinema. A subscription to a DVD club called Quickflix where you order your choice of films from a vast catalogue online and titles are delivered to your door as quickly as you can watch them with a reply-paid envelope for easy return. It’s brilliant and this business is so efficient it’s amazing. I’ve ordered several for delivery over the next few months and sent out invitations to my friends with descriptions of all the DVDs on order, asking them to rate their viewing preferences, ranging from:

1: No, never, I don’t want to see this film, even if you paid me

up to

5: Yes, desperate to view this one.

They’ve been emailing their choices back and it’s interesting to study them and work out how I’ll best accommodate all the permutations and combinations, bearing in mind Cinema X can only seat six at the moment.

Someone has rated The Terminator with a zero, even though I didn’t give them that option.

I think they’re trying to tell me something.