I must learn to tell my boy when I’m going out. I have just got in to find a series of answerphone messages, each one increasingly more worried than the last. He must have spent almost his week’s worth of credit on calling me, sure I wouldn’t be out so late with the Smudgelet, panicking each time I didn’t answer the phone. Bless him – I feel bad to have caused him such anguish – little wonder that when he rang at 11 he wanted to talk and talk and talk and not let me go. And little wonder I’m now sitting here with the tears streaming down my face. I miss him so.

The opera was fantastic. Mid Wales Opera performing The Tales of Hoffman. Not one I’d seen before, although I reckon there can’t be many people who don’t know at least one tune from it (Barcarolle). I wondered at first whether we’d made a mistake, especially in taking the Smudgelet. But no, it was great and he absolutely loved it once he got into it. It was very surreal, though… and that tall skinny fellow had no right singing bass when I had prepared myself for him having a tenor or baritone’s voice! I think the next bit of culture to inflict on the Smudgelet will be in December. It would appear that the Vienna Ballet is performing Swan Lake. My eldest has always harboured a secret desire to see a ballet, just to see what he makes of it, so it will be interesting to see how Smudgelet reacts to the suggestion.

He and I are hoping to go to Austria next summer. My original plans have fallen through – we were going to stay with some friends out there but I think that friendship has abruptly come to an end so we’re going to save a bit of money every month in a determined effort to enable us to go either to Vienna or to Salzburg for a week and really savour being in an Austrian city. I spent a year there as a language assistant and utterly love the country, and took eldest son to Vienna the year before we had the Smudgelet. I’ve not been since. And when I asked the Smudgelet for what he’d most like to do this summer, that was his reply. He’d really really love to go to Austria, for preference to Salzburg but, in second place, Vienna. Ooooooooh, if we save enough, maybe we’ll get to go to the opera there – now that would be a taste of culture not to be missed.

I’m not sure whether I told you we’re going to Scotland tomorrow.