Meteors

Lamp-posts are blinding.

Ordinarily, as a light source they're roughly as reliable as the phone reception in Doncaster Interchange, but when you want to look at the night sky they're infinitely more reliable... You can count on them to render all celestial bodies virtually invisible.

Something of a nuisance during a Meteor Shower, then.

Standing in Adam's garden at 1am and wrapped in a jacket that could easily have doubled as a duvet, I squinted up at the stars, trying to see anything other than the ubiquitous haze of street-lights.

After a few minutes, it was obvious that this plan was doomed to a fate worse than Woolworths, so I adopted a new approach. Hugging Adam, I managed to manoeuvre him into place at just the right angle - thus creating a 2-in-1 human blind and radiator. As my nan used to say, I was "snug as a bug in a rug".

Skin-crawling imagery aside, it worked and after a moment I saw my first shooting star, swiftly followed by another; little streaks of secrets searing the night-sky.
Oh, nature, your self-harm is truly enchanting.

Among these masochistic sparks were my own closely nurtured hopes. And you'll be able to see for yourselves whether they come true - the first of which should be obvious in around 300 days... Or much fewer if it back-fires.

And if the last few hours are any approximation, that's entirely possible.

Eee, I don't know. Whether my wishes are the product of circumstance and hard-work, or the faculty of some celestial being dwelling beyond the stars, I can't begin to fathom.

Like you, I'm very much in the dark.