Early arrival, affirmation, distraction, good positition, food at last, prize and care.

1. Rosey and Wayne turning up first thing. They were there when the surgeon came round, which was reassuring. I was really glad Wayne brought Rosey, though, because I didn’t like the thought of her wandering round town by herself. Later, when I came out of theatre, Rosey and Gill and Darren were waiting for me. And Claire had sent over a little jade goddess of wisdom to help me along.

2. As they took me into theatre, a nurse said in a thick Afrikaans accent: ‘Do not be afraid. It is not necessary.’

3. The surgeon talked to me as he worked, so I didn’t really notice much pain or strangeness. He told me about the music we were listening to, and about a drive I should take round Cape Point.

I got to do this tour -- see Floral kingdom, south of south, penguins and farewell.

4. The cuts fall along a natural line of my face, so they are not as noticeable as they could be. And micropore tape conceals the true horror of the stitches (see them at whereiamworking) -- which are very neat when all's said and done. But it’s still noticeable enough that people ask what happened so I get to tell the story.

5. The plate of fish and chips that I got for late lunch -- I’d been nil by mouth since I arrived (apart from a few mouthfuls of water and glass of juice.

6. The gang had been on a wine tour that day. They brought me a bottle of their favourite wine, and said they’d missed me. Awww.

7. Gill and Darren say that their beautiful thing was seeing three little middle class white boys give their burger to a homeless man in Steers. Everyone else in the restaurant was ignoring him; but the boys looked at him, looked at each other and then without a word went over and gave him the burger.

Stellenbosh, South Africa