28th March

I've arranged to meet my cousin Keith today. I haven't seen him in 25 years and am quite interested to see how he has turned out and a little nervous about what he thinks of me. I'veleftit so that its just the two of us. We were very, very close when we were formative teenagers and I want to see how we get on now - just the two of us.

I stroll down to get the train. Its a gorgeous sunny, warm day. Buy my ticket and wait on the platform then realise that I've left my phone on the kitchen table. Call Marian but her student is there and she doesn't hear the phone. There's no taxi so I rush back up the hill and back down again within half-hour. A record for me and I reckon I've lost a couple of pounds with the exercise.

Get to the pub and wait for Keith. He's running late!

We get on fairly well together. We've gone down quite different paths in our lives and I don't think that either of us understands what the other one really does for a living. I speak in apples and he speaks in pears!

Still, we both still like beer and talking. We do some of the former and a lot of the latter as there's a lot to catch up with. We grab a bite along the way - one of the worse pizza I've ever had from Pizza Express. God! Since they sold the franchises it has allowed a lot of shit places to spring up under their name. Its not a brand you could trust now.

We have a good time in each other's company and he promises to try and fix tickets for Marian to get to the Hockney exhibition. We've been trying to be to it but its sold out and we've had no luck.

Promise to meet up again more regularly and I head off home. I'm still plagued by the bloody cough/cold so am pleased to head back. Good to see the man though.