Big news: It’s Sefi’s Birthday. She is 3 years old and fully adored. I’d like to celebrate with cake and candles and rigmarole but that wouldn’t mean much to a cat. She loves chicken, climbing, chewing cardboard and being chased. We serenade her with Stevie Wonder’s ‘Happy Birthday’, switching Martin Luther King references to Sefi ones.

Exercise: ML and I cycle to Cardiff Bay, one behind the other in contented motion. Quiet streets, turquoise sky. I feel guilty for this bliss with so much suffering on the horizon. We bike it to The Barrage and pause briefly to choose a spot for a swig of coffee. A woman and her husband march up beside us and she goes “Excuse me, some of us want to use this path! We’re supposed to be 2 metres apart you know!” We presume she’s joking; after all, the place is deserted and there are acres of space to walk along. We laugh, ha, ha yes, but she doesn’t return our chuckles and we realise she is serious. Her hostility lands on me like infected spittle. Fear and fury. I try not to judge her. This is life now – a pendulum that swings between Dystopia and Utopia.

Play for Today: ML has been listening to a Forensics Podcast and tells me your nose and ears are supposed to be the same length. She comes at me with a measuring tape to test the theory. Mine are both 5.5 cm if you’re interested.