This is me with my aunt Vi – my mother’s sister – at Sandy and Alex’s house in Table Bay, Cape Town. Meeting her again after many years was uncannily like meeting my mother again. She had grown more like her over the years. We spent an evening with her and then shared a meal at the Blue Peter hotel, where they were staying at Blouberg, on Table Bay.

Today I’ve written a few poems, based on our African experiences and mostly started when we were there. I’m not sure they’re all finished, but I quite like parts of them. Earlier I went to Yarmouth to assess one of the EDP trainees. Sunny but very cold: I felt as if my entire body was about two inches thick. It would be nice to get rid of the catarrh and feel a bit more resilient. On the plus side (I think) I have lost a bit of weight. I don’t know why.