It was Phil who suggested a barbecue and the weather forecast was not bad – mostly cloudy but warm – so I thought I’d give it a go.  And the table and chairs would have to be scrubbed sooner or later – anyway, we were very British about it and ignored the gusty breeze that kept it from being an entirely relaxing experience.  I usually plod back and forth for quite some time with plates and glasses, but came over quite unaccountably lazy today and used paper and plastic ones, which made a bit more challenging too.  Still, we had a good time.

I’ve been putting aside albums of photographs and we looked through them.  Russell’s mother was the record-keeper, which was just as well because there would be very few family photos otherwise. I was interested to see a picture of me aged 18 months, which I’d never seen before, alongside one of Russell at a year old, which I had.  His baby pictures show him to look surprisingly like Gus, which is interesting because it was Ronan who we always think looks most like his father.  There was also a rare photo of our wedding, an extraordinarily poor one, with Russell almost cut out of the picture altogether and the two of us on the extreme right side, most of the rest of it showing a car park.  I was wearing a coat and there was not one of my dress.  It was in a later picture, however, with me holding Eloise. I carried on wearing it for several years.

Food shopping has become an enjoyable experience, though an expensive one, with the new or expanded shops in Yagnub.  I went into the deli for some ice cream and was offered some cheese to try.  It was delicious and I bought some – it comes in small rounds, maybe 100g, for nearly £5.  The woman who makes them, using raw milk, does so with my friend Jonny’s cows’ milk and at his farm.  He makes his Brie-style cheese there but these are riper and richer.  Too delicate to want to chill yet they wouldn’t keep long unless you did, so I’ll only buy when I have someone to share it with.