Oscar Pistorius tearfully recalled the final hours spent eating and chatting with girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp before he shot her dead on Valentine's Day 2013, during a second emotional day of testimony today.
The athlete's voice quavered and tears welled up as he described how the couple discussed a contract she was signing before going to his bedroom where she did yoga.
"Usually after dinner we would have watched TV downstairs, but we both had a taxing day," Pistorius recalled.
Instead they retreated to the bedroom where he also chatted on the phone to a cousin and she surfed websites before falling asleep, he testified.
Pistorius is charged with deliberately shooting 29-year-old Steenkamp dead, but he claims he shot her through a locked toilet door believing she was an intruder.
Earlier, Pistorius described how he met the vivacious law graduate and how they quickly grew closer. He said they had begun to plan a future together.
"The first six days we knew each other we called each other every day," he said.
"I was very keen on Reeva," he said. "We started really seeing a future with each other."
He also said, however, that he believed that, "if anything I was more into her, than she was at times with me".
The star Paralympian was in tears as he read reams of transcribed cell phone messages he and Steenkamp sent each other during their four month relationship.
In one typical message the aspiring actress affectionately said "I love you, boo".
Pistorius also sought to explain text messages in which Steenkamp said she was frightened about his behaviour.
"I'm scared of you sometimes and how you snap at me and how you will act towards me," Steenkamp said.
Pistorius said: "I just think it was a bad hour in our relationship," describing a fight at an engagement party.
Pistorius took off his glasses and wiped his eyes with a white handkerchief as he read messages sent shortly before Steenkamp died bloodily in the hail of bullets he unleashed in his home.
