GUINNESS DEMANDED TO be let out again when I came back down the stairs and he didn’t come back. He was a tomcat, so it wasn’t unusual for him to stay out all night, but it was a rotten night and I woke a couple of times to the sound of rain battering off the windows and the roof, imagining him sodden.

It still hadn’t stopped the next morning, and after a shower with the rain drumming on the eaves, in accompaniment, I made it down to the kitchen relieved to find Guinness back in his position at the window looking much sorrier for himself than he had last night. I opened the latch and he stepped in without hesitation, flopping wetly onto the floor. Amazingly he consented to let me towel him dry and after I’d fed him, he curled up on an old blanket in a box in the back kitchen.

I left early for the office. Despite my ministrations the cat looked reproachfully at me as I closed the back door: it appeared I wasn’t quite forgiven yet. But I had no intention of doing a full day in the office, so I’d be back to let him out. Marina was still on duty today – this morning was just for the handover of files.

Though it had stopped raining, the drive was difficult, to put it mildly. The roads were saturated, large pools of rainwater had gathered at regular intervals the whole way in, something the Mini didn’t cope with too well. Despite my best efforts to take it slowly, the old car cut out twice, meaning I had to wait for a minute each time to start it again. Quite the contrast to Florida.

In Glendara I parked in the square, noticing the same motorbike I’d seen the day before in the space beside me again. I was early for the office, so I decided to call in to Stoop’s newsagent to buy the papers and save Leah from doing it. But before I even took the key from the ignition, the heavens opened and it started to rain again, hammering down on the roof of the car. I sat for a bit waiting for it to ease off, watching people scurrying between doorways.