Today I ran over to Bloomsbury to pick up a prescription for Mrs Y. A bright daytime run in January, what a treat. This was to be a sunglasses-on mission.

Everything went swimmingly as I collected the scripts, took them to the pharmacy a few blocks away, browsed leisurely as they were filled, ran the medication back to Mrs Y, said yes of course I'd be happy to do some shopping for you too, ran to the nearest Lidl, found all but one item on the shopping list, circled the vegetables section fruitlessly, admitted defeat for the moment, checked out, popped over the road to Tesco, found the cauliflower I'd been looking for, walked the shopping back to Mrs Y, dropped it off and had a lovely chat with her and her husband.

By now outside the light is receding. Streetlights make themselves known. Russell Square is a vision. This was also to be a sunglasses-off mission.