Unless you’ve spent the past fortnight face down in a wheelie bin, you’ll have noticed the leaves rusting up. Crunchy carpets of gold, copper and red appearing everywhere; Mother Naytch performing her annual colour-spunking extravaganza for which we all have free tickets. Perhaps it’s because I’m still fairly fresh off the boat from Australia, but man do I love this time of year.

So, to continue my recent run of achievable après-school activities, I messaged my mate Cam to see if he fancied getting into the woods for hot chocolates, cold biscuits and hide & seek. He was mad keen, but didn’t hide his disappointment when he found out the kids had to come too.

I filled a flagon with molten morale, packed some criminally underrated Tesco own-brand cookies, and whipped over to the school gates. Luna came out, her face scrunched up and burst into tears. Some friendship woes, it would seem. We had a hug and a chat before I floated the afternoon’s proposal via an ASMR whisper. 

“Do you want to drink hot choccies in the forest and play hide & seek?” 

She did. Very much.