Jaffa Cakes

I spent this morning sorting out my tax return for 2009/10 and am horrified to discover that in the whole of the year, I earned just £12,000. People doing work experience in film companies earn more than that! I think that my Dad earned the same amount in the mid 1980s! I feel rather proud of myself for managing to keep afloat on such a miserable sum without going into major debt. No wonder there are holes in all of my shoes and socks!


This afternoon found me in our loft rehearsing the folk choir. It’s an incredibly complicated piece of music and therefore a very slow process but I feel we’re getting there. There were one or two hangovers in the room and by the end of the rehearsal most of the singers were almost dead on their feet! Thank God for Jaffa cakes! This entire composition should be sponsored by McVitties, because I take them with me to every rehearsal to perk people up!

I’m still waiting to hear back from gospel singers regarding their availability for rehearsals and am going out of my mind with worry. I’ve texted one of them twice to ask her if she can get back to me as soon as possible. Earlier on, I left her a phone message. She's a student, and I confess to being just the same at her age. There was always something more exciting going on and committing to anything could mean missing out on something much more important! Jane, in the folk group introduced me to the concept of FOMO (fear of missing out). Most FOMOs hedge their bets and wait until the last minute before deciding to do something, but she, a self-confessed sufferer of the condition, has a diary which is filled until Christmas and beyond, and keeps auditioning for new choirs!

We’re off to Matt’s house for a roast meal tonight, which will hopefully be a relaxing way to end the day. If I’m lucky, I’ll forget about Pepys for just a few hours...

...Speaking of which, 350 years ago, our hero was being schmoozed by a pair of brothers who wanted a favour, naturally attempting to capitalise on Pepys’ influence in all things Naval. They took him to the Feathers in Fish Street and fed him a meal of “two or three dishes of meat well done”.

Pepys returned home to find two of his distant female relatives hanging about in the kitchen, namely the eight-year old Theophilia Turner and her Auntie Dyke; a name I particularly enjoyed reading. Pepys wanted to avoid them and actually hid in the garden until they’d gone!

Later on, Mr John Spong, a musical friend of Pepys’ appeared at the house, and together with Mr Creed, they sang all evening.