When I tell her she's glowing, it's radiance instead of radiation. It's not blushing or anything that might be painfully extracted from her embarrassment. It's those eyes and that big smile. I'm truly happy and maybe more excited for her than she is for herself. Because unlike her, all I see when I look at her is good and sweet. Those eyes and that big smile. She is glowing again.

It is happening more often now. I saw a survey which said that when a group of sixty year olds were asked what the happiest decade of their lives was they said their sixties. Behind that, their fifties and behind that, their forties, descending all the way to their twenties. Is it that in this one year we are that little bit closer to being sixty? I don't think so, uft, I hope not.

I'm happy to be back, happy to be with new people. Happy that my friends are happy. Happy watching them smile with each other, thinking of them smiling when I'm not around. I think that, rather than the fact that we are all one year closer to being sixty (!), we are just enjoying ourselves and each other even more. Myself, I like the possiblities that Glasgow brings. Saying that, university hasn't started yet, September is a beautiful month in Scotland and the winter still seems far off somewhere, dancing around the north pole. Not pole dancing, incidentally.

I can't wait to have you all back. I miss you terrible like. But I wonder again, when you get back, will your eyes be even bigger? Will your brains be exploding with new information and new details of foreign smells and sights? Will you have a tan? A mullet? A Norwegian prince? A slab of Yak butter? Stories? Photos? Diaries?

I can't wait.