Also," Bunty adds cheerfully, "how many cats did you have when you left?""One," Annabel says, putting her hand over her face."You have three now." Bunty swings hrt bag over her shoulder. "See you at Christmas, lovelies!"And my grandmother disappears as abruptly as she arrived.

Because that's the truth about people with obsessively organised plans: we're not trying to control everything in our lives. We're trying to block everything we can't.

Never underestimate the power of a well-placed apostrophe.

Apparently humans share fifty per cent of their DNA with bananas. My father is a constant reminder of that.