Some loose ends.

You remember I spent a few days with Claire and both of our kids down on the coast in January? We were in a small seaside town there, and I discovered a few days before going down that another good friend of mine, the one who made the finest green salad I'd ever eaten, was going to be down there at the same time. Everything's connected...

I introduced Claire to him, and all our kids (I had 2 of mine, Claire had her 3, my friend had 2) amused themselves nicely and we settled into this lovely routine of spending days at the beach, evenings in one or another of the houses, eating, drinking, singing. My kids said later they'd never seen me so happy. We made plans to do it again next year.

My friend died shortly thereafter in an accident.

Also, when we got back to Sydney I had a day there with my sons and I decided I needed a haircut so we went to visit Harriet. They thought she was a nice lady, which she is. She texted me later "Your boys were totally what I expected, very sweet and polite.. handsome too".