I was at a school in Bawtry today. Veronica, friend in the village, used to live there so I checked with her about times, distances and suitable routes (the AA can be somewhat eccentric), and it was the same school her children attended many years ago.

I got into conversation with the teacher of one of the groups doing the workshop, and she went to the same school both Veronica and I attended - sometime after Veronica, but overlapping with me when she was in the fifth and sixth forms, and I was in the first to third forms.

The first child I picked out was called Veronica which is very unusual nowadays, although she is from Poland and the spelling is different.

Last night I was also chatting with Linda at the book group, and it turns out that she used to lead Trixie, the pony I went on for sixpenny rides along the beach when I was four or five years old, with my legs so short that my feet were put in the leathers rather than the stirups (very dangerous) and so young that a slow trot satisfed me that I had been for a gallop. Yesterday I had forgotten the name of the grey which was Helen's favourite, but remembering the name Tinkerbell actually woke me up at 2 o'clock this morning.