Well, not that rapturous. And not that deep either, just 34 metres. But pretty good nonetheless. Yesterday I went diving again for the first time in far too many years, and enjoyed myself immensely. I'd been meaning to get underwater again for ages, and then the opportunity came up, and I was glad I took it.

The trip was very well organized, and also very Italian.

It has suddenly become unaccountably hot, and today was St Peter and St Paul's day. They are the patron saints of Rome, and so the entire city takes a day off and decamps to the beach. Alas, Peter and Paul are not the patron saints of the commune where I work, so no holiday there. But the day still had an impact, mostly because of the traffic.

I've never really believed that adversity brings out the best in one, blitz spirit and all that. Yesterday I changed my mind. There was to be a little party here, and I had set my heart on serving Bloody Marys, even though it was Saturday and for some reason I associate Bloody Marys indelibly with...

Ages ago I was swimming in a hotel pool in northern Kenya when a friend came up and dumped a fossil tooth in my hand. He'd just found it, and didn't yet know much about it. "Hominid?" I asked, not all that tentatively. "Yes. Probably around 6 million years old." And I have to confess a little shiver ran through me. Daft, of course. But there I was, holding a very old tooth that almost certainly was nothing to do with me personally, and yet …

Up into Tuscany on Saturday, to meet an old friend and make a new one, thanks to the efforts of another friend who is one of those people at the centre of intersecting circles without end. There was much good conversation, in which a trifling gap of, perhaps, 15 years was of no consequence. And on...