It’s  far, far too hot to write much on here today, so I’ll just  wish my brother Mark a very happy  birthday. He, Kat and the kids are doing well. We talk quite frequently over the web, and I can see from these updates that the children are  growing up alarmingly quickly. Yet webchats can only go  so far: it has been way too long since I last saw my older brother and his family in person. I really hope it isn’t too long until we can be all together again, talking, laughing, and eating mum’s food.

Happy birthday bro – I miss you.