He went for an early morning jog. He has this six-mile route along the shore and back. I always like his flushed expression when he comes back from his runs.

I now know where his aquiline nose comes from. He was so embarrassed when his mother came. Of course he would be. But I know he’s proud of her and she of him. She is very attractive, very elegant. Very modern. If I had been given the option to have dinner with one of our lecturers that night I would have chosen her over Catherine and Cleopatra. The others would have found this odd.

Yesterday he was elected our speaker for the upcoming board meeting. The Instructor told us we would have to decide without him present and the most senior student would preside over our proceedings. A somewhat strange rule I think. Because the most senior student is, of course, a guy who has failed his final exams three times. Maybe it’s a comment on seniority systems…

Anyway, there were two nominations — me and him. I got two votes, my own and one other, he got all the others. I wonder where my second vote came from. I suspect from him.

Him who speaks Mandarin. I was baffled. I guess it’s his mum’s forwardlookingness. So smart.

The trip to Asia was good fun. Even the long flights. My first ever in business class. We had the whole front cabin to ourselves. I’d love to know where they get all the money from.

Jiang Qing was mighty. So determined. I admire that. Kim II was more like the villain from a James Bond parody. His movie library was stunning. I hadn’t expected that he would have so many films on celluloid. Miles and miles of reels. Despite his clownish side, he is a connoisseur. And, of course, he managed to build nuclear weapons. Amazing achievement. Not even the Germans with Heisenberg and Weizsäcker managed to get there. And not the Iranians with all their oil money. Flabbergasting really.

Comedy, it seems, is not necessarily an enemy of good dictatorship. An interesting lesson they hadn’t taught us yet. When Bokassa and Gaddafi were here, it seemed almost the opposite lesson. It was so funny how they engaged in this who-is-the-lesser-loser competition. My instinct is Gaddafi is. He has left a little more behind. But losers they both are.

There are things to be avoided. They repeated again and again, as if it was their mantra, “beware of the French.” N just grinned. I like him so much.

He had a pretty bad chest infection and I was very, very worried. But he’s on the up now.

And yes, he delivered on the promise he made to me. I knew he would. There is a mare now on the grounds. He named her Veritata.