Tomato War has ended, at least for now, in the Hounslow Chronicle office and everyone is trying to appear effective, efficient, organised and capable of handling change (that's change as in things happening, not coins to buy strange yoghurts from the sandwich delivery man).

The reason is that a memo has gone round booking the whole staff for PDRs, or Performance Development Review to give it its proper title. What this means is that we all get to sit down with our next boss in the chain for a chit chat about how well or otherwise we are doing in our particular role. And, of course, how our boss and the company might help us do our job to an even higher standard.

Impossible, you might think.

It's interesting to watch what happens in the week building up to the PDRs. For instance, on the day when it was raining cats and dogs and the sky went black, the very nice lady from HR came to visit our editor. They were sitting drinking coffee in the editor's office. It has a glass wall, a bit like Hannibal Lecter's cell. It's so tempting to say: "I ate Clive with some fava beans and a nice chianti."

Anyway, suddenly a scream from that office had everyone leaping. But none so fast as news editor Dan Lyons.

"Clive is outside in the hammering rain," screeched the editor through the glass. "All the baby tomatoes will get knocked off."

Now Dan is based nearly as far from the door as you can get. But somehow he beat an obstacle course of photographer Matt Grayson (who pretended not to hear and scurried off), desks, filing cabinets and printers to heroically wrench the car park door open and disappear into the deluge.

He staggered back soaked, muddied but unbowed with Clive in his arms. The rescued plant was gently placed in the rear foyer to recover from the near-tragedy. Dan returned dripping to his desk to admiring glances from the editor and the HR lady.

Both Dan and Matt will be having their PDRs with the editor in the next few days. What a pity we can't see the results.