Haron was so adorable yesterday. I mean, she always is, but Christmas brought out the excited girl in her as she disappeared under mounds of wrapping paper and presents.

The inevitable result was that, when we finally collapsed into bed – sated with good food and wine – she was somewhat hyperactive: over-excited, just like a little kid. She needed calming down. I hit on a plan.

I explained to her that another Christmas tradition here in England was for husbands to give their wives 25 strokes of the cane at the end of each 25th December. (She counted herself lucky that I wasn’t giving her 2007, one for every year of Jesus’s age – plus one for luck).

They weren’t hard strokes at all. Well, OK, they were – just not by the standards that sometimes apply! And it wasn’t my scariest cane – although it was one of my whippiest. But it worked :-)

And to think that the New Year is her main celebration, rather than Christmas… I’ll have to devise another cunning plan over the next week (“one stroke for the first of January” not looking like a recipe for much in the way of kinky fun).