SAD

It’s freezing outside and I'm shivering like one of those silly hairless dogs. I’m now pretty sure I’m coming down with the cold that seems to have torn through the Pepys performers like a wild fire. I feel pretty rough and a gland on my neck hurts like hell. I’m also very worried about my voice, which hasn’t been working properly for a few months. I suspect I might have some form of acid reflux, but of course there’s always that niggling doubt that it’s something more sinister. I hope none of the other singers are suffering from this cold, however. It's certainly not the best time of year for trying to perform a work which relies on exactly 40 singers!


I had lunch at the Flask in Highgate with Fiona today, and said goodbye to her for another few weeks. She’s off to Texas, where apparently it’s almost as cold as it is in London. I’m sure it’s not as murky, however. If I don’t see the sun soon, I’m going to have to buy one of those lamps that people with SAD are forced to stare into for hours.

For those of you who remember the soup-gate scandal from the 31st March, I'm thrilled to announce that a tin of courgette and gruyere soup no longer costs £3.49 in the delicatessen in the village. It now costs a slightly less extortionate £2.99. It just shows what a phone call to a press office can achieve. Or maybe it was simply that no one was buying it at the former price!

I've just seen a weather forecast and the temperatures will continue to drop over the next few days. It might well be time for me to dig out my winter coat. Apparently it gets colder the further north you travel, which doesn’t bode well for my week in Newcastle at the start of December! I think I could well see snow...

I’m shocked to see that there’s a new adaptation of a Christmas Carol on the telly this year in amongst a sea of repeats and old formulas revived like the un-dead. I think it’s time for TV executives to start being braver and programming things that people might actually want to see.

Not a greatly inspiring diary entry from Pepys on this date 350 years ago. Elizabeth and Jane spent the day “doing the linen” four days after they’d started the process of the monthly wash. Meanwhile, Pepys was doing business at the office and at a variety of City Inns.