Change of plan.
I know I promised to conclude the story with the second installment, and instead I'm going for one page a week sooner than I planned (which gives us another two installments to go). Apologies to everybody who wants to get this over with (and/or get back to Conny Van Ehlsing), but the options at this point were: have a full installment and a long wait, or have a page in time? And - believe it or not, from what you've seen so far - I'm convinced that being in time is a good thing.
So, see you next week. And be sure to read my next Ramblings column for at least one of the reasons I got delayed.