A lot of water has passed under the bridge since the night in March 2007 when I started thinking about finishing off the work on the house. I had no idea that in a couple of months my life was going to fundamentally change.

Visiting the house today, I remembered the photo, and I decided to take another. Sitting there some fourteen and half months later, in the house I no longer live in, I reflected on the past year. Some of it has been hell, and there’s still a lot of problems I’ve yet to face. But for all the angst and agony, overwhelmingly there has been the joy.

That joy has been Ginger. For almost a year now we have talked every single day. We mail, we chat, now to save money we use a webcam, before that we used Skype. Last summer I used my mobile ‘phone – that was quite a bill.

The day after tomorrow Ginger arrives in the UK and she’ll be here for a whole month. We’ve deliberately kept her visit low-key so as not to cause too many ructions with my ex-wife Elaine. We are going to tour the UK for a couple of weeks, then I have to get back to work, and we’ll get to play ‘house’ for a short while.

Ginger will be here for both our birthdays and for mine, I have organised a get-together at my sister’s, where the whole family can meet Ginger for the first time. I’m more worried about Ginger flying here than I am about her meeting the family. She on the other hand is terrified of meeting my family. We’ll see.