In my other life, I got tangled up in the skirmish to maintain ownership of the Falkland Islands in the early 80s. I was one of many on Ascension Island and we were extremely busy. The work routine was a turnaround shift of 24 hours work and 24 hours rest.

Of course, there was a lot to do and particularly at first the work was indeed around the clock. Shift change took place with buses collecting the new shift and bringing them to work, then taking the off-going shift back to the accommodation for a few strong drinks and a long sleep. Of course at the end of your shift you were very tired indeed and many of us succumbed to sleep on the bus. The bus was crowded and you couldn't lay down so our dozing took place sitting up in our seats and the result was a bus full of "loose necks" - people with their eyes shut and their heads lolling loosely with the movements of the bus. Similar in many ways to the nodding dog toys that used to be seen on the rear parcel shelves of cars.

We became known from this as the Nodding Dogs and soon we were giving each other individual nicknames based on dogs. My build has never been slight (he said euphemistically) and thus my own nickname was "Round Dog". Pretty pejorative really, but I became quite proud of this name and have always looked for an excuse to use it more formally. And here it is!