The advantages of working in a boot-cupboard cum home-office have become apparent this week.

Being surrounded on three sides by outside walls, and having only a tiny prison like chink for a window, the boot-cupboard is probably one of the coolest places in Brighton, if not Britain.

If only they too had boot-cupboard which, with the swish of a drill, could be turned into home offices, I should imagine all those commuters, packing themselves into the minty green new trains with often broken air conditioning, would have opted for this place of work over any other in the past week.

The other advantage of boot cupboard over, say, large open plan offices is that no one can actually see you in it. So, as well as being cool due to exterior walls and no direct sunlight, you can also be cool by wearing very little.

On the hottest day of the century last week, I could, in fact, have got away with writing piece about the preferred holiday destinations of MPs and political pundits, wearing nothing at all. But, being modest, opted to wear swimming costume, which had advantage of being more versatile than nothing at all, in that it enables me to team it with various things and get through the day in a state of arguable elegance, whilst keeping my cool.

Wearing nothing at all would not, for example, have allowed me to jump up from computer and answer the door, when it rang unexpectedly, without a certain amount of scrabbling for enough clothes to make myself decent.

Cossie, on the other hand, could be covered up quickly enough with sarong, creating appearance which didn't raise an eyebrow when someone from an electricity company I didn't think we actually got electricity from came to read the meter.

So, began the hottest day with cossie, over which threw dress in order to take Rugrats to school.

Dress came off when I got back and began work and sarong went on when above mentioned man came to read meter. Sarong came off again to get back down to work, then dress went on again, unnecessarily, when I phoned editor of paper to discuss the piece I was writing.

Obviously it was unnecessary, as she couldn't actually see me, but I imagined she could and would never take me seriously again if she knew I worked in a cupboard in a cossie. Anyway, was so conscious of only wearing cossie, that feared I might give the game away by saying, in answer to some question or other, I'm only wearing a swimming cossie that it seemed safer to put the dress back on.

It was however hot. So, I took dress off again and went to fill the paddling pool, in readiness for Rugrats return from school, and put it on again, after having a quick paddle myself and deciding I needed something more than sarong to venture round corner to shop for cold drink.

I returned sweltering, from being out in the he sun for the two minutes it took to get to the air conditioned shop, and cooled down again in front of computer without dress, and with cold drink, until phone rang and I decided to put dress on again, in case it was someone important and I again felt underdressed for having a conversation with them.

It wasn't. It was Sara asking if she could borrow my Writers Handbook, as she needed the names of various small presses, for idea she was working on (about how anyone can write a book and get it published), and could I bring it to school with me when it was time to collect Rugrats.

Realising it was that time, I grabbed book and double checked to make sure I was wearing more than a cossie. I was, since I'd, again unnecessarily, put dress on to answer phone.

I should, however, have checked more carefully as, when I arrived at eldest classroom her teacher asked if I'd like to make use of staff toilet, where I would be able to take dress off, in private, and put it on in a way that was other than back to front and inside out......