When I visit our son Dickie, he doesn't say, `Hello, Mother, I'm glad to see you. I wondered if you might come today.' Sometimes I wonder if he thinks these words, even if he is not able to express them.

Eorann arrived right in the middle of solemn celebrations held in London to mark the birth of the `five billionth baby'. But, naturally, nobody knows precisely when - or where - that epochmaking child was born.