It’s remarkable. I took this herbal Nytol (the non-herbal version has to be okayed by a pharmacist) for three nights and slept well, but I didn’t take it last night. I woke up because my radio programme had changed, slept another hour, woke and thought, it’s all right, I sleep nowadays, and I didn’t wake again until 8 o’clock. Amazing, but then I nodded off again after a few minutes, until after 9. I haven’t slept so much over four nights in a row, for many years.

A friend came in for dinner tonight and I’m calling on Rose in the morning, then seeing Ronan and Rufus after that. All is sociable here at the Zedery.

I reminded 10-year-old Hadrian, the other day, of an occasion when he was two years old. His mother Dilly used to drop him off on her way to work, for the morning, a couple of times a week. He’d sometimes had breakfast already, but he was usually ready for a Hobbit-like Second Breakfast.

One morning, he observed, “Ben is Grandpa’s dog.” “Yes,” I said, “and the tortoises are Grandpa’s too.” “The chickens are Grandpa’s.” “Yes they are. What is Granny’s?”

He thought about it. “Bacon.”