Three Beautiful Things

1. The woods. The shady side of the street. Our flat. Very much welcome on a hot day. 2. She says: "Thanks for telling me this Prosecco is sweeter than Champagne. I wouldn't have tried it otherwise." 3. Daredevil swifts shriek over our hill. They fall, now skyward, now earthward. Always falling.

1. After the rain, town is as green as a bowl of salad. 2. We go to see Singin' In the Rain -- they have a rain set, and the falling water moves a sigh of cool air across the overheated audience. 3. One of Nick's friends is in town for a wedding. After the show, we go and find him in his hotel.

1. My sunflower's leaves are hanging soft and sad like wet handkerchiefs. I dip a watering can into the cool, dark rainbarrel and take it a drink. An hour later, its leaves are proudly starched again. 2. The air is as hot as my skin and the sunlight is so bright that I have to work hard to decide what details are important. I like to step into an air conditioned shop; and to be given a free sample of a cool drink. 3. We spend the evening listening to Prom 45: The Ukelele Orchestra of Great Britain . It's very funny -- and the sound of the audience joining in with Beethoven's Ode to joy on 1,000 ukes was stirring, and somehow reassuring and unifying. Also, if you have a moment, read the reviews of the controversial Prom 25 . One listener claims her ears were raped, and another was upset by whatever the pianist was doing inside the piano.

As a birthday treat, Nick took me to London Zoo . 1. In the reptile house -- sometimes it's hard to see if anyone is at home in the cases. We look for a while, and sometimes spot an eye looking back at us, or a scaly green body curled round a branch. I like seeing a coiled snake move -- I love the way the circles slip over each other in different directions. 2. The zookeeper told everyone off for waving at the gorilla and touching the glass, but the gorilla definitely started it. Gorillas look like men who are puffing out their chests because they're trying to hold their stomachs in. 3. The tapir enclosure seems empty, but I spot a dark corridor down the side, and we discover a window that looks right into a room where the tapir is munching on the last of his lunchtime leafy branches. He chews thoughtfully and then stretches out his snout to sniff the air. The sign says that he is related to horses, and there a horsy smell around. Then, having checked out the smells, he lies do...

1. On a cold day, wrapping up in layers: a petticoat, thick chocolate brown tights, a pink vest, an aubergine-coloured top, a thick cord skirt in deep plum, a long chocolate brown woollen coat, socks and a pair of brown lace-up boots and an overcoat. 2. Sliding a heavy red pot of stew into the oven. 3. As I leave, Katie tells me to take the longer, safer route because it's dark and cold.

1. The temperature has dropped, so leaving the house is very refreshing. 2. Finishing things -- House on the Strand came to a chilling conclusion on BBC Radio 7 , while I completed my response to a wedding invitation . 3. The smell of apples and cinnamon cooking.

1. Overhearing my neighbour playing the piano. I texted her to say I was enjoying it; turns out she'll do requests. I could track down some tunes and slip them under her door. 2. Making a cooling cross draught through the flat by strategically wedging some doors open. 3. A small child shouting: 'Can I not like... can I not like...' as if someone was refusing to let it dislike something.

1. Cool splashes of rain when the temperature is in the 30s. 2. The smell of rain on dry earth -- it's very hot and we've been having a couple of short sharp showers each day, so this is a frequent treat at present. I discovered a few days ago that this smell is partly aromatic oils from ancient vegetation that has turned to dust. 3. I finally summoned enough courage to clean the dust out from under my bed -- this is a bit of a mission because I store an awful lot of stuff there, and it all has to be moved so the bed can be folded into the wall. But it's all done now -- and I discovered that since the bootfair there is less junk down there, and it's all more neatly packed now, too.

1. Wrapping a wet tea towl round my neck and my office chair getting so hot that standing up is a joy. Also, Oli's successful mission not to complain about the heat all day. 2. Bosses who bring ice lollies. 3. Being told that good things are happening in this life because I've been generous in a past life. This is a lovely thought that underlines the idea that when you do good for other people you are doing good for yourself too.

1. Walking out of the office into the cool landing. 2. Finding a spot in the shade that catches the breeze on a really hot day. 3. Being invited in to drink muscadet at Caroline and Oli's.

1. The temperature has dropped after a few days of heat. 2. An enormous plateful of lamb chops almost hidden by a garden of salad. 3. Novels with lots of distracting footnotes. I'm reading Mr Norrell and Jonathan Strange . The narrator (so far it's not clear who they are) is rather scholarly and every so often will stop to enlarge on something mentioned in passing. The book is set in an unfamiliar Victorian England where magicians used to have fairy servants but now no longer do magic, so there's a fair bit to explain.

1. Coming to the top of a long, hot hill and hearing a water trough quietly filling. 2. Passing a field and smelling cows. 3. Horses had broken up the path into mud so I had to wade through the stream to clean my sandals.

1. Our guide was called Skokie -- Afrikaans for ‘Fright’. He had a fine set of dreads under his woolly hat. He told us about the time he was bitten by a scorpion and by a snake. He showed us bushman rock art and bushes that cure coughs and dandruff. We saw where a leopard had killed a porcupine and a dassie toilet. I’ve often seen the white stains on cliffs where their wee runs down, but he made us climb up and look inside to see a 4ft high mass of a substance like hard black tar. ‘Dassie period,’ he explained. ‘My grandfather tell me that it is urine, but at school me and some other boys found out more. Dassie is the only animal I know that have period like a woman.’ He said that his people chip bits off the mass and use it to make a tea (which looks like Coke and smells bad) for treating kidney problems. 2. The heat on the mountain was incredible and by 1pm we’d all had enough. The relief of getting back to the lodge was marvellous. We sat in the lounge gulping down iced roibos and e...

1. Francis our cook getting up to supervise his last ever breakfast despite drinking 14 bottles of beer the night before and falling on his back while doing a headstand. We left him at the campsite to catch a bus back to Windhoek, then to Livingstone where he will either get some more work or continue back to Nairobi. We will miss him and considered wearing black armbands and having a minute's silence at lunchtime. But in the end we were too busy eating, so contented ourselves with a few mournful cries of 'Francis? Francis? Where's the salt?' 2. Getting away from the campsite without being hurt by the psychotic stroke man. 3. A man in the town of Springbok tried to sell me and Claire M some drugs -- the first time on the trip. Go Cla(i)res. 4. The taste of a cup of tea when you are hungover. Last night I announced that I was going for a hangover, and I suceeded very satisfactorily. As a result, I have been murmuring 'Oh my head' and then smiling to myself smugly...

1. Going into the mountains and feeling the temperature drop after a week of general stickiness. 2. The bar at Farmhouse Camp. It’s in a hut with a thatched roof with eaves that touch the ground. We squatted on three-legged stools, warming our hands on pots of glowing coals. The only bad thing was that it closed at half past nine. 3. The magic curry that Francis whipped up from leather-like beef. Dar es Salaam to Farmhouse Camp