As I sit here, on this badly made (presumably some hypermarket bought) poor excuse of a computer table, nursing a dizzy-dache (dizzy-dake: what you get as a slight headache but makes you feel dizzy all over), I am treated to the full view of my grandmother getting upset with my younger cousin refusing to do his homework and in general being a playful child.

Nothing quite remarkable you might think, except 10 years ago I was in the same position, grandmother a-scolding and trying all means to get out of doing work. Every day I'd get a 'stomachache' and go to the toilet, or when new assessment books were bought I'd steal the answers behind and hide them between books in the loo - then bring my homework to do in the loo because I was such a studious girl.

The location has changed (500m away from the old house), the child has changed, people have changed, situations have all changed, but it's comforting to know my grandmother's bad temper is always there, good intentions veiled by frequent pauses in her own activity to shout HEY at a cousin lying prone on the table.