Serkan cleaned my floor today meaning that it was a good idea for me to  be out of the house for a  bit. I decided to take a good long walk, over to my old stomping  ground in charlton. The sky was grey and I wasn’t that optimistic about anything interesting happening, but as luck would have it I happened upon a sight I had almost given up on seeing this summer. Coming into Charlton park, passing the house, I began to catch glimpses of men in white on the field: there was a cricket match being played! At once, memories came flooding back of all the summers I had sat in that park watching the Blackheath Mighty Eights. It made me feel simultaneously happy  and sad, as if normality had resumed after a long painful break.

I didn’t stay long before resuming my  walk;  I didn’t recognise either team playing. Yet for the two or three overs I sat  at that boundary, it felt like all the darkness of the last few months had been suspended, and I remembered that there was joy and fun to be  had in the world.