Walking across the car park at the end of yesterday afternoon, on one last errand for the day across to our research building, I caught a delicious whiff of end-of-termishness. Somewhere, between the cards and decorations, the reduced number of people around and the combination of sharp, dry weather and winter evening light, I was reminded of many previous ends of term.

This job, previous workplaces, university and school. All have had a point towards the end of the year where there is just a little more to do but Christmas is so close you can almost touch it and certainly can’t stop it. A couple more working days and then I’m done for the year. There are plenty of undone things to pick up in January but I’ve reached the point where it is more about tidying up and perhaps a spot more decoration and enjoying the rolling away of these last few hours.