I made a rather rash purchase the other night. In my defence, I was minding my own business, sleeping, when at 3 a.m. my neighbour suddenly decided to play his Kings of Leon album really loudly. So loud he couldn't hear another neighbour pounding on his front door or me bashing the end of my broom against our adjoining wall. Which I don't recommend because I cracked two kitchen tiles in the process.

So I turned to some therapeutic blog-reading and random Google searches, the last for '5mm wool felt'. I've ended up on umpteen U.K. chiropody supplies sites looking for it before but this time, a lone Ebay listing caught my eye which, fatally, turned out to be a 'buy it now'. So I did.

When I told a friend (a longtime felt aficianado) on the phone that I'd bought a large bag of small felt discs, she asked how many. And burst out laughing at my reply. And continued to laugh when I tried to change the subject. And carried on laughing while her 18-month-old daughter joined in and laughed too. And then asked me to email her a photo of them.

Now I just have to work out what to do with the other 4,883.