Circles on circles. Now it is not quite like this in the playground, but it is not entirely different: the girls at my daughter's school, when they spin themselves round, do the same footwork as the Cairo Sufi dancers. It's clearly related to orbit, the passages of the sun, the moon and the earth, the music of the spheres and the perfection of geometry. As they do so, their skirts rise, fall, whirl and billow in great circular movements, guided by their arms as part of the dance. Always moving, they undo their waistbands and their skirts become as hoops, the cloth folded in, and they whirl on, for hours sometimes, round their waists, their knees, their feet, one arm and then the other, their necks, then way up up above their heads, the circle spinning and spinning as the man spins too.

They wear wide, circular skirts, their hems reinforced with I'm not sure what, and they have a particular pace - a kind of one-two-three step - with which they propel themselves round, keep their balance and make their direct and mystical connection to God. One of the joys of Cairo is the Sufi dancers at al Ghouri, who two nights a week whirl with an elegance and energy which entrances the audience as well as the dervishes. But what they're really for is something so simple and perfect that although to my knowledge there are no pictures of hula-hooping devotees in tomb paintings or carved on Egyptian temples, it is only a matter of time before some are discovered. "I'll go to the gym rather than the pub and if I want a drink, I'll get a Coke!" We'll see if his enthusiasm lasts the week.. FOR A start, they're round Round is good: aesthetically pleasing, simple, pure Then they're plain Nothing can go wrong with them. Even if the two ends do come apart at the join you just stick them back into each other. If they won't, you can put one end to your mouth and spiral the other in a big loop to your friend's ear and use it as a funny telephone.

"It'll save me a lot of money, and I will have to keep focused on my work I won't be getting up at two in the afternoon any more It'll make me fitter!" he declares, warming to the theme. He is considering going into business with Alistair.Dave has a big advantage. For health reasons (unspecified) his doctor has told him he can't drink any alcohol. So while everyone else is getting pissed at his club nights, he'll be going around stone-cold sober."I'm all right," he says He's just getting over the shock.