1. I watch squirrels chasing and racing each other around an old massive tree. When they see me, they freeze like garden ornaments: one mid-climb on the bark, the other on a branch as if it is nibbling a nut.

2. I think I recognise someone in the queue for coffee and it turns out that the someone thinks she recognises me too. Her brother vaguely knows John so they come over and in attempting to ascertain her identity, I ask a do-or-die/yes-or-I-will-seem-super-weird question: “do you have sheep?” For once, I was not (just being) super weird.

2b. We all nerd out in our own special ways.

2c. John first met the doodlebots after his talk the other month but I had to wait until this evening. I over-engineer mine (just like John had done) and it fails but soon it’s up and running, and drawing lines all over the paper.

2d. We’ve been too focused on the activies in the atrium that we don’t notice the giant picture windows are giving us a panaromic view of the city centre: the old buildings lit up beautifully against the black sky. (And the not-so-nice bits hidden in the darkness.)

2e. The staff get giddy as the night goes on – a combination of having fun and being tired. The doodlebot wrangler has given all the little entities personalities and the women looking after the Lego theme park start making the minifigs do rude things in the bushes, and together we place a realistic addition underneath a spinning ride (a minifig spewing Lego vomit).

3. I like driving around with John. We were without a stereo in our old car for so long that we’re out of the habit of listening to music there; instead, we just talk (and talk).