I am woken in the night by some lower back pain. I guess there’s a first time for everything. I manage to get back to sleep. The pain is still there in the morning, but eventually fades. I get up and start work on a new draft of When The Stars Go Out, the first story I wrote after my marriage imploded. I’ve been tackling how to represent what happens to my main character, and have decided I can leave most of it to the end and leave the reader guessing (alongside the rest of the characters).

We enjoy some heavy rain and startling thunder at work, which enlivens the average Monday. The Elderbeast has asked for risotto one night this week; it’s one of Rachel’s specialities so I ask if she’ll cook us some up after picking up the kids from school. This gives me enough time to sit down and play some board games with the kinderbesten before dinner. We choose Machi Koro again, which has quickly established itself as a family favourite

After that I finally consign the kinderbesten to sleep, and settle down for my traditional Monday night’s viewing of Watch Game Of Thrones.