Sunday, May 4

I still feel reluctant to leave the dog along for five or six hours, since she needs to feel confident about us and the world when she gets on a plane in four weeks time. I therefore went to the Subash Centre session to see how everyone had progressed, and came home before Simi and Lekshmi left ofr Vavvamoola.

The weather felt too hot and sultry to do anything much so I sat and debated if ironing counted as “anything much”. I decided I should just do it rather than leave it hanging round. Shanti followed me up and down the stairs before deciding that the heat had forced her to lie in a doorway near a fan and check that I didn’t leave the house without her noticing.

On one of my trips up the stairs I noticed how much hair the dog sheds, and I paused to photograph a couple of representative stairs. We will need a specialist vacuum cleaner in Helsinki, I thought.

Later we heard thunder in the distance but nothing appeared anywhere nearer; anywhere we could see.