1. The sound of Katie tapping on my door in the morning. I pull the covers around me, and as she comes in, she says: 'Ohh, a bed bug,' before handing me a cup of tea.
2. Beans on toast.
3. Recognising a word in a Japanese film -- 'Kaimun' -- which we used in China to ask the chamber maids to let us into our hotel rooms. In Akira Kurosawa's Ran it is used by an general invading a castle to mean 'Open the gate!'
Winter is passing, toad in the hole and mulled wine.
1. It is cold (although less chill than it has been) and cloudy (although less grey than it has been) and a robin sings loudly from the top ...
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1. An enormous fat bumble bee at work. She is so bulky that she can knock dead blossoms out of the way as she gets right in to the new jasmi...
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1. The shortest night and the longest day. I was up at Wellington Rocks with Anna, Paul and Jason. We couldn't see the sun through the m...
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1. I promised myself I wouldn't moan and grumble about it -- but I do. And as if by magic, a very kind friend produces the required blaz...