You know, it is of course wrong of me to feel so negatively about young people; I shouldn’t just assume that they are all going to try to wind me up or take the piss. Today, for example, something really nice happened. I was out and about as usual on my daily trundle. I hadn’t gong far when I encountered a group of young people on their break from a nearby school. As usual I automatically felt hesitant and assumed that I would have trouble with them.

I told myself to try to ignore them. As I passed the boys though, one commented on my cap. These days I roam London wearing a red baseball cap with the words “Make America Think Again” on the front. Obviously having glanced it, one boy, probably aged about seventeen or eighteen, asked if I liked trump. I stopped and replied that I think Donald Trump is a disgrace to human civilisation.

What followed then was a decent, well informed conversation about American politics. To my surprise and relief, the young man had no intention of being hostile, taking the time to let me type into my iPad. It was only a brief conversation, at the end of which I told him about my blog, and we were soon both on our way; but it just goes to show that I shouldn’t just assume that everyone is going to bully me.