So I painted the upstairs hallway today and part of the stairwell going down. Taking a break out on the patio with my wife and my eldest daughter, who has been ill and a little odd lately, prone to saying things like “your head doesn’t go with the rest of your body. I don’t know exactly why, it just doesn’t, somehow,” I had a drink of water and tried out my painting joke on them.

“When I was a boy dreaming of living in Europe and painting, I somehow imagined it differently,” I said.

They looked at me kindly.

“I have it!” my daughter said. “It’s not as hairy as the rest of your body!”