The day looked sunny enough so I scampered onto the train wearing a thin fleece. As we rattled along I looked up from The Guardian and noticed that there was snow over the Downs and pockets of snow here and there in the fields, and that the strange sensation I had felt in my body walking along the platform was coldness.

Despite penguin bites I felt positively disposed towards the world. A manly swim at lunch, and was fairly productive at work.

In the evening met Sarah again. I like her. She is very funny and full of stories that are unlike other people's stories. Over a meat-based Iranian meal and sweet milkless tea she told me a fairly graphic account of female circumcision in Sudan for example. And about her appearance on a reality TV show. A colourful person.

Back at Brighton station I woke up the man dozing near me in the carriage. The camaraderie of the late trains.