Calendarising

On reflection, April has been gloriously sunny. Better weather to accompany us in lockdown we could not have wished for. It therefore deserves the chance to become more changeable and showery, lest we start to rely on consistently fine weather during escapes from the house. It would serve us poorly in the long run to have even medium expectations where the British climate is concerned.

I strolled the deserted streets of central Cambridge once again and stumbled across this relatively hidden back entrance to Peterhouse. Cambridge is full of quaint gems.

Gugs arrived back from a week with her parents and along with her possessions she was despatched back to me on the driveway by her father. The family is Kenyan-born and he regaled me about a family road trip from Nairobi to Zimbabwe during the 1990s. It sounded epic, especially as they navigated tricky random borders in Malawi and northern Mozambique. A tip which I wish I’d heard years ago was that carrying a stack of calendars helps as a sweetener at border crossings. Officials want something that looks studious on their desks, more than they care about carefully filled in paperwork. This could be a game-changer.