On the way out of the café I passed a hairdresser’s. It wasn’t my usual place across in Spitalfields, but there was a sign in the window advertising a free 9 a.m. slot. And it hit me: I wanted my hair cut. I’d always hidden behind my hair. I relied on it being long and in front of my face, and if my face was now going to have as much delight in it as I’d just been reminded of in those photos then I wanted to proudly show that off. I wanted to see this brave new world I was going to conquer. I didn’t want to hide anymore.

‘Hi,’ I said tentatively, peering around the door to the only man in the shop – a squat bloke in a striped shirt with the sleeves rolled up and tattooed forearms. ‘Can I have that appointment?’ I pointed to the blackboard advertising it.

‘Sure you can, love,’ he replied. ‘Come in. What are you after?’

When I left fifty-five minutes later my hair was cropped close to my head, shaved at the neck and longer on top, with a little fringe, inspired by Twiggy in the Sixties, but darker. And what’s more? It looked fabulous.

‘I love it,’ Patrick said, unpacking croissants and Nutella from his tote. I smiled. That tote had been all the way around the world with us, and now all the way to my kitchen – which he was in for the first time. ‘You look like Winona Ryder before she started to steal stuff.’

‘Excellent cultural reference,’ I quipped, instinctively reaching up to smooth a hand over my newly naked collar. He leaned in for a kiss, something we did every few minutes, a reminder to ourselves that that was a thing we could do in England as well as back in Aus. The novelty of it hadn’t worn off. We were all over each other, and it took the length of half a pastry and a mouthful of orange juice before we had sex on the sofa. Twice.

He stayed all day, helping me batch cook some chilli for the week and hanging out my laundry upstairs, just to be helpful. I loved it. It felt like the right place for him to be. As I predicted though, I crashed by early afternoon and we both fell asleep in front of the EastEnders omnibus and didn’t wake up until it was dark outside.