So, a text message turns up on my mobile phone, saying “hi! What are you doing on New Year's Eve?” I don't recognise the number. What does one do? The kind of people you'd be keen on spending New Year's Eve with are surely already in your mobile phone's address book. Replying with a “Who is this?” will immediately make that person wonder why, as they are presumably interested in spending New Year's Eve with you, why on earth you don't have their number in your mobile phone. Who could this person be? Of course, I'm interested in finding out, but at the same time can't deal with the potential embarrassment on both sides. As it happens, I'm going round someone's house for an invite-only intimate soirée, by which I don't mean we'll all be kissing each other, well not until midnight at least. But I'm still slightly troubled by this text. I don't want to upset anyone, you see.

Rhodri Marsden is 34, and from England.