I had booked a day out in Bedfordshire with old friends from college long before I had found a flat in Kent, and long before V had rescued an abused dog in Sussex. But even longer ago, V had booked a market stand at a fair in London, and this was where the extreme logistics were required.

The dog would not have been happy at the fair and so she needed to be left at home, but she cannot be left alone for as many hours as all that. She is a nervous little dog, hardly surprising given her back story, and she cannot be left with just anybody, so it was agreed that she would spend the day with the Giant Peach. But that meant that the Giant Peach could not be the necessary spare pair of hands setting up the stand at the show, so this was where I fitted in.

V & I got up at 06:30 in Hastings, loaded up the car with valuable stock and drove it to Earl's Court where we set up her stand. When all was ready and before the doors opened to the general public, I set off on foot in the rain to West Kensington where I picked up a District Line tube to Hammersmith, which is where D picked me up in her car. From there we drove to Shepherd's Bush where we picked up N from her house and then the three of us set off together to H's house in Bedfordshire.

We hadn't assembled as a group for six years and there was a lot of catching up to do. There was also a mouthwatering spread and an amount of fizz. Once we had caught up with one another, the conversation began to spread outwards to encompass mutual acquaintances who were not present, and then cinema and TV. I agreed that both “Bodyguard” and “Killing Eve” had been great entertainment, but perhaps, on their own, wouldn't justify space in my titchy little flat for a television set. I was assured that “Mamma Mia Here We Go Again” is an improvement on its forerunner, filmed in my former neighbourhood, and I was told about a TV series based loosely on Cilla Black's “Blind Date” except that the contestants are all naked and they have to select the partner of their choice from a close-up of their genitalia.

I decided I was quite happy without a television set at home.

But what do you find to do in the evenings?

We talked about my storcase as a means for getting in & out of bed, and that I need to fill those cubic spaces with pull-out baskets of some kind in which to store tee-shirts  and suchlike. I mentioned that I had not yet found baskets of the perfect size.

Oh you can just Google those and buy them online!

Yes, I could, alternatively, I could make some.

Conversation was so lively for so long that I completely forgot about my camera, and I didn't walk back in through the door of my flat until 00:45. So all I have for today is a very poor quality photo of V's market stand, instead of a very pretty garden in Bedfordshire.