"The thing people don't understand about weddings", said a perceptive friend once, "is that they think it's 'the bride's special day'. When in fact, of course, it's usually the bride's mother's special day. It's when she gets to create the wedding for her daughter that she wishes she'd had herself. And she'll be able to remember the details of this one."

The male equivalent is probably buying a model railway set "for the benefit of your children". Or, at least, it used to be. Now, of course, geeks of my generation are terribly keen to support the RaspberryPi, "because of all its educational benefits".

I was thinking about that this morning as I soldered transistors onto Veroboard... for the first time in about 30 years. It's for the educational benefit of my dog...