And all of a sudden, it’s October. I remember July like it was yesterday, and feel like the summer just breezed by without really saying hello or coming around for tea. Having said that, the leaves may be falling, but it was still 32C here yesterday. It’s not right.

(I’m also a little worried about how I’ll adjust to the temperature when I go home for Christmas. Having spent two years here now, will I freeze to death? Run cowering at the sight of snow? Or just wear a nice big thick wooly jumper and eat five hundred mince pies? I’m hoping for the latter, myself. Oh goodness, it’s only a couple of months until I’m back in the presence of radiators. How I have missed your adjustable slabs of white hot metal and your hiss late in the evening when the heating bursts into life!)

But anyway, October. Plans need to be formed about Christmas chocolates, contractors need to be found (and to consider small claims court for our June mistake on that front), ideas for the next year here in Durham - the house, friends returning from trips away, family coming next April, and how different the city will look next October as the regeneration tide gets higher. But not all the boats are lifted.

After much, much procrastination, I have a learner’s permit again, so I can drive if I have a responsible adult in the car alongside. That’s something that needs to be sorted out too - I’ve lived in the US for two years and haven’t had a car. I survived! (Thanks to friends with cars, mind you) But now, I think it’s time to give in.

I’m being bitten by bugs as I sit out and watch the leaves fall, a mixture of Summer leaving and Autumn coming. Which means hot chocolate soon, everybody!