All our guests have gone and this week saw the return of school. It was torture getting up with the 0625 alarm clock and venturing out into the streets with the wind chill making it feel like minus six. But on the first day I did it with Martha, Daisy’s elder sister.

The photograph below seems to capture the relationship between the two girls. Daisy loves having Martha around and she’s behaved so well. But she was quickly reminded that, as well as being spoiled by her elder, she’d be ‘guided’ to do things. In other words - pretty much her own words, actually - it was like having another parent.

On the bus we past a few remains of the firework party. Boxes full of cigar shaped holes from which multiple grenades had been launched. And even the odd, real, soggy cigar in the gutter.

Some of the streets still looked like a bomb had hit them and there were plenty of Christmas trees dumped by the bins. But, every now and then, a bin lorry would emerge or a conscientious resident, and the mess would be reduced a little.

January is a bad month for me and Sarah because we both leave it too late to file our accounts, with our personal tax payments needing to clear by the 31st. So the apartment has been awash with printed-out bank statements and invoices. In the background there’s always the tapping of calculator buttons.

After this week, normal business should resume.

It’s beginning to snow, with more forecast, so we’re going to get a proper winter out here.