1. Lily charges in through the door to find her granny & pop-pops. I hear her excitement being greeted as I follow up the steps. Later, the same thing happens again with her friends.

1b. Silky smooth soup.

1c. The roasted pumpkin is pleasantly brown and pleasantly round.

2. The black and white cat watches us – Lily – from a tree. It seems almost offended when the dog ignores her.

2b. We find a ruin in the woods – the building is all but gone but the perimeter hedging still carves a straight line.

3. It’s unusual for there to be so much pizza left to choose from. I have another slice of aglio melanzane.

1. The man approaches his house. He lets out a strange noise and his little tabby cat comes *running* down the side snicket to meet him. It jumps on the wall, tail in salute, and accepts his kisses.

1b. I come up with a really funny but really specific joke. The set-up isn’t quite right for it but I tell John anyway, it’s too good to let drift away.

2. He tells me he uses the right tool for the job, even if it’s a bit old fashioned or strange. I think he’d make a good teacher. Later, he tells me about all the audiobooks he likes, which makes me like him even more.

2b. I get the last seat on the bus.

3. Spicy fried fish with chickpea rice. Yum.

1. My afternoon in Leeds is largely a frustrating bust – I don’t get to do anything on my list and even my fancy lunch is a bit of a let-down – but I do get to buy delicious cake and cheap Nerds.

2. Lily’s face when she sees me at the window. Her ears jump up and her eyes sparkle.

3. Croque monsieurs for dinner.

1. The excited puppies running around about 50% under control.

2. As usual, P makes us examine something that seems obvious but which we hadn’t considered before.

3. The roundness of the cherry drink, the sweetness of the gobi bhaji.

1. I have my favourite lazy noodles for lunch. I often suggest them as a last resort but they’re secretly much higher on my list.

2. I fill the pots and troughs in the front garden with spring bulbs.

2b. A chore I’ve been meaning to do for months – I pull up the grass and the weeds from where they’re grown in the cracks around the curb. The grass comes out with a flat bed of roots.

3. We’re late but the jokes start straight away.

3b. Doing impressions of Sean Bean as we walk down the road.

3c. The restaurant is just what we all need: D, E & O have delicious kebabs and we have puddings – John gushes about his cornflake tart all the next day.

1. John realises that the white tin loaf we bought the day before is perfect bacon butty bread.

2. I spend most of the afternoon reading – more of ‘Prep’ in French. On our dog walk, I tell John that while I’m understanding about half of it without really trying, it’s strangely the portion that I’m consciously having to translate that feels more rewarding.

3. The tan dog reminds me of a dog we nearly adopted right back in the day – one with even more social issues than Lily. I watch this one putter about the woods and hope the other is just as happy, wherever he is now.