3:30 am

Dear Diary. I'm dreaming an excellent dream about strawberries when Girlfriend shakes me and wakes me up. It's time to go. She says we have to be at the airport for the flight at 6:45 am and get the luggage and suitcases. I tried to sneak in a few more of my brother's books while Girlfriend wasn't looking but it was no good because she doesn't give me a chance to do it. It’s just as well because when we get to the airport we find out that the two suitcases weigh the limit of what we could take. So I might have had to throw those books in the bin if I did take them.

4 am

My dad drives us to the airport, me, Girlfriend, 4-year-old and five-month-old 0-year-old. The streets are deserted, with not a person or car in sight. I like this time of night, feels special, and magical. Reminds me of when I was six years old. My mom and dad took me to the Walsall illuminations. On the drive back I pretended to be asleep in the backseat and my mom and dad thought that I was conked out but actually, I had one eye open just a bit. And I was watching the street lights as we drove along the dark roads. There was something so special and otherworldly about the street lights as if they came from another place, a better place. The seemingly floating rectangles of glowing white and orange light little rectangles are set against the pitch blackness of the night sky. I had my eye open all the way home.

When I was 27 I saw streetlights from above on a plane to Montreal when I had the plan to break up with my girlfriend. And I've never seen a more beautiful sight. I'm not talking about my girlfriend, by the way, I'm talking about the streetlights. Thousands or possibly millions of little glowing lights of the city. Everyone else on the plane was watching films or asleep but I had my eyes glued to the view out of the aeroplane window that night. It looked so calm and peaceful down there.

6 am

I’m in WHSmith, Birmingham Airport trying to figure out what things we included in the meal deal. There's a Twix included in the meal deal. It doesn't matter because there are no Twix. I take a fruit and nut bar instead. When I get back to the boarding gate, Girlfriend is looking angry she says, where were you? The screen above the gate has a red sign that says "last call" which is a bit unnecessary because they've only just started boarding. There’s still another half an hour until take off.