The temptation to bleat about the eye-watering amount of money AIG lost in a mere three months - $61 billion (and they still want more help) - is nearly more than I can bear...but I'm going to leave open-mouthed incredulity to the salaried pundits, I'm a blogger in the trenches with his own tales to tell.

Even though, I do n't know more than a handful of my neighbours, and in fact, I've never seen some of them, I do know that most of them are facing the same struggle as I am - mice.

There is something strangely reassuring that we are brought together in the only unity of purpose we'll ever have because of the occasional incursions of mice rattling through false ceilings or slipping behind fridges and washing machines.

Like I said earlier I could n't even recognise some of my neighbours, yet we all, bizarrely, share an intimate secret. So far apart and yet so close too.