This is all that’s left of five days with Colin – the remains of a pack of biscuits and an old newspaper. I hate it when our friends go home – I grieve for them. It’s a sad fact that in Cornwall we’re almost “Billy no-mates” – you can count the friendships we’ve made since we’ve been here on the fingers of both hands, if not on the fingers of one! I suppose that’s partly because I have been mixing with people young enough to be my children since starting at Uni so I’ve not formed any grown-up friendships.

We persuaded Colin to come down and spend some time with us. He is one of my oldest friends and can always be relied on to bring good cheer and happiness to the rat’s nest. It’s been 18 months since he was last here and to be honest, I doubt that this visit will go down in his list of all-time best trips away. He had a terrible trip down, involving train, coach and taxi, not to mention the bits he had bargained for such as the trip across London in the first instance and the trip up the hill from the station at this end. He has been suffering from illness for at least half of the time since he arrived and has set off home today expecting to be home by about 8pm and has recently texted me to tell me his journey is going spectacularly wrong today too and he’s not expecting to get home now before 11pm.

So, I am left feeling as though I’ve been unable to supply a great time to my buddy and equally bereaved because he’s gone and who knows when he’ll be tempted to return! As for the biscuits? I’m no fan of any biscuits but these are down at the bottom of the pile so sadly they’ll probably end up on the bird table – sorry Colin!