I remember the Swiss army knife I got as a freebie from some computer game company or other. Eliot cut himself with it the first time he picked it up. I don't think my dad was impressed – and not just because it was his carpet Eliot was bleeding on.

I remember picking up a songbook in a charity shop, along the lines of Little Boxes and Other Songs by the person who wrote Little Boxes, whose name escapes me. We were visiting Wendy (my mother-in-law at the time – I’m not sure if she’s still my mother-in-law, presumably not) in Southend. We also met some RNLI crew members in the pub.

I remember bumping into Lee Remick in a shop in Chichester. Or rather gawping in awe as she looked at a stand of greeting cards.

I remember fruit-flavoured Polos.

I remember a friend telling me he had spent two hours that morning in bed listening to his parents bickering. Which had confirmed his need to move to Australia almost immediately. And now he’s gone.

I remember Auntie Betty (not really and aunt – a family friend) saying a cat had jumped over her pram when she was a child, by way of an explanation for her fear of cats.

I remember folding tabs on stage, invariably with at least one other person.

I remember putting away the awning very carefully each time so that it stayed in pristine condition. Initially with another person but eventually on my own. But I still took it very seriously.