I’m alone and taking care of myself. That seems to have involved wine and cake, the latter being pretty unusual and the former not common in the middle of the day, but it seemed right at the time, even though I feel slightly overfull now.

I’ll do a bit of paperwork, but not much and I’ll find something mindless to watch on television later. Nothing very loud. Wink is going to help me get going on Tim’s paperwork over the next couple of days – well, Friday and/or Saturday and then she’ll be away for a week. I have plans for some major turning out at home next Sunday and Monday, before a busy few days. On Tuesday, I have my booster Covid vaccination and school Safeguarding training – it’s online, which is good. All school-related meetings will be online again for the time being, which suits me very well. It’s a good thing to have face to face meetings sometimes, but travelling for an hour each way when it is just as effective on Teams is something to avoid if possible, especially when I’d drive home in the dark.

I wrote that a couple of hours ago and then went to sleep for a while. I’ve been doing just what I said, apart from the paperwork, which hasn’t happened.

Nearly 18 years ago, Weeza and I went to the wedding in Chennai of her friend Kavitha, who returned to India with her fiancé to get married at her family home. It was less than a year after the death of my mother and I was by no means over it – not just the death but the years of being unwell and the six months of (in apparent rude good health at that time) actually being on the point of death. The wedding was fabulous and great fun but gruelling, not least because the Auntie who was host was teetotal and so everyone else had to be.

The second week, Weeza and I went to Kerala, which was wonderful and relaxing. I realised that I had never in my life lounged by a pool on holiday before. I’d never had a holiday when I did almost nothing except read, voraciously, relax, eat and drink. I know it’s what a lot of people do on holiday, but not me. Weeza and I hadn’t spent a lot of time together for years and it was lovely and, for me, it started the healing process.

This afternoon isn’t like that, but it is, at least, a respite.