31st birthday on Sunday. Felt a bit queasy in the morning (probably duck pate withdrawal) but rallied in the afternoon to go to Richmond with M to buy clothes, notably an irresistible knee length olive-and-black spotty patterned coat from Hobbs. The proper celebrations are this Saturday, when M R and I are having our joint-hundredth party. Last night, though, we did go out for fajitas and a fillum.

Postscript - just got a text from Oxford as I was composing this post - welcome to the world, baby Cadman! I'll come and bring you some funky knitwear as soon as your parents are up to having visitors...

Back from la belle France! A good break. Photographs to follow shortly.
Five very good things about the trip: driving over the Pyrenees; swimming in the pool once on a warm afternoon; drinking Sancerre in St Emilion; buying stationery and groceries in Leclerc; eating copious amounts of cheese, pate and duck; being shown round the earthworks of Blanquefort by the resident vicomte on his ride-on lawnmower.
Five not-so-good things: horrendous >2 hour queues at Stansted for security checks; R missing his flight because of said queues; heavy rain some days; hurting my back (probably lugging suitcase, but it actually went - in the old familiar place, lower left - as I was bending down to put some Nutella away in the cupboard); rather whiffy septic tank (probably due to rain).
None of the not-so-good things mattered much apart from R not being able to come - he was much missed.

Off to the penultimate night of the Proms - C Minor mass and the Haffner - tonight with Dad and Sarah. It's been an exhausting old week, both at work and at home. Marc's got to spend a lot of time on the book, and neither of us have slept well. I had a (successful) interview at work for a new role, which has been quite stressful too - although obviously I'm pleased at the outcome - so we're looking forward to Gascony next week more than ever. We're flying out on Tuesday to Bergerac, to stay in a gite belonging to some friends of Gunny and Chris, and hiring a car to drive around and see the place. Robert and Sarah are both coming out to join us later in the trip. So the next post here is likely to be in a couple of weeks, and will no doubt feature holiday photies.

Sarah came round on Friday for curry, wine, some mutual kvetching, and some forward-planning for our trip to France later this month.
The Independent has published a Good List of fifty worthies making the world a better place. I've no huge problem with the individuals on there, but it's a real shame that their 'panel of experts' thought it was okay to identify 40 men and only 10 women. Are we to conclude that women have only 20% of the potential for good, or does their goodness and ethical behaviour just get taken for granted? It made me quite angry.
In other news, I got paid £30 for knitting a bespoke teacosy for an osteopath, which I'm off to spend today in Gerard and Craig's new yarn shop in Vauxhall. [For more on this, see my other blog.]
Oh, and Leeds University - one of my [ahem] almae matres - have decided that I'm an interesting enough alumna to feature on their website - voilà. Shocking picture, taken when I was up there to give a lecture.