“I’m too tired for lipstick,” I thought as I looked in the bathroom mirror, “but I always put on a bit of lipstick before I go out.”

So I found the closest lipstick (I was too tired to delve) and I grinned at myself. I looked like a clown with red lips against my pale, tired skin; but at least it gave me a little fake life and zing, even if it clashed with my light pink jacket and orange cut off trousers.

“Why am I so tired?” I asked Chris as I reached the top of our twenty-nine steps to the gate.

I laughed and Chris didn’t answer, perhaps because he has an ear infection and couldn’t hear, or maybe because there was no need to reply. He might even have been too tired to respond with anything other than a Harpo Marx kind of smile.

Firstly, I had to drop off a birthday present for my friend Catherine. She also happens to be my neighbour – another twenty-nine or so steps down to her front door. It took ages for the door to open. Apparently her daughter Miri was frightened by the unaccustomed laughter coming from behind the door (and the blurry figure of a clown in pink and orange seen through the obscured glass). And then there was the singing, “Happy Birthday to…”

“Oh, your mum’s out, is she?”

I couldn’t have really counted on Catherine being in – her birthday was over a week ago – and what made me laugh was the tired envelope that sheathed the tired and belated card, that wasn’t a real birthday card… And I didn’t even buy it. It came from my late mother’s stock of cards.

“Be sure to sing Happy Birthday to your mum for me when she comes home,” I said to Miri.

“Are you alright?” Miri asked concerned.

“Yes, just a bit tired, you know how it is when you’re too tired to put lipstick on?”

Miri agreed but looked puzzled and I guessed that either she didn’t wear lipstick when going for a walk in a forest or she’s never been that tired.

Yes, Chris and I had a walk in a forest. We forced ourselves to walk the long way around and went right to the top of the old golf course to extend the walk.

“It’s lovely in our forest, isn’t it?” Catherine said over the phone just now. (She loved the gifts and her card!!!!)

“Yes, lovely,” I answered. I was too tired to tell her I was so tired.