Fisher Price

It's extremely cold and damp. A sort of driving fog seemed to engulf London last night. It swirled past our window like the smoke from a ghostly cigar and seems to have left a sort of misty moisture in its wake. I'm sitting with Sascha and Brother Edward, watching the X-Factor, with one eye on the boats floating past on the Thames below us. Sascha just pointed out THE most tragic-looking party boat. It had all the disco lights flashing and yet only about ten people were on board. No one was dancing. Shocking. It seems the weather has turned everything into a damp squib!


I went to see Philippa and my god-daughter today. It was wonderful to see them both. We made a walnut cake for Philippa's father which I was forbidden from tasting, and I made a curious piece of headgear, which I shall be wearing at the premier of the motet!

Philippa has dug out a Fisher Price garage from a loft somewhere and Deia and I had great fun cranking tiny plastic cars up the little lift and down the curvy ramp. It proves just how well they made their toys back in the 1970s. 30 years since Philippa played with the same plastic garage, it was still looking sturdy and still bringing joy into a little girl's life! And not just a little girl's life... It made a 36-year old man very happy, too!

The joyous garage...

November 20th 1660, and the first frosts of the year came to London. Spare a thought for poor Jane Birch heating up vats of water in the back garden in preparation for the monthly wash.

Pepys made his way by land to Sandwich's house and spent the morning playing on his organ. Oo-er. In the afternoon, he went with his Bessie mate, Mr Moore, to the theatre to see Beggar's Bush. Pepys was particularly keen to point out that Michael Mohun had been in the cast, who was said to be the "finest actor in the world." Pepys seemed much more impressed by the theatre, however, the newly built King's House, which he claimed to be the "finest there ever was in England." A day of superlatives!

He returned home late at night and found the house in a "washing pickle". What a wonderful turn of phrase the man had!