Definitely not a tasklist. Just an aide. No more…

• Working as seasonal staff for the Post Office and the shock of seeing someone close to my age, alone and desperate. A young woman, clearly well educated but with a baby and no idea how to cope. Shortly before Christmas at a council flat in Craigmillar Castle. Waiting on a payment which I did not have. Trying to use an iron to heat food. Almost nothing else to her name. I had seen people down and been from a poor background but she was absolutely at the very bottom and not one person seemed to care. The pretence of wealthy people claiming to understand how hard life can be. All the lies and lack of empathy and humility of comfortable people. That has stayed with me my whole life.
• The happiness I felt sitting in the Gardens in Madrid. Thinking of the memoirs of Segovia. The botanics are very poor as I recall but it was perfect to me.