Up for a run at eight. In West Meadow a harmless­ looking beige Labrador lollops towards me and delivers a sharp nip to the back of my left leg. I’m not moving fast, there’s no question of shock or surprise, or even aggression on the dog’s part; he just came over and bit me. His owner is a lean, quite elderly man I frequently see. He doesn’t seem much put out. ‘I’ll give him a good hiding,’ he says, with a grin.

Run on. Lloyd Dorfman is walking up Lime Avenue. He’s most concerned by the news, says I should go to hospital and have a tetanus jab. Run on for quite a way in nervous apprehension of my body suddenly freezing in mid­-motion, before I remember that I’m covered for tetanus until 1998.