Rat pee

I went into Central London today to buy a new plug for my iphone which I'd managed to leave at the Travelodge. When I got home and finally unpacked my suitcase, I realised I hadn’t lost the plug at all! Still, it's good to have a spare, and it was rather nice to be wondering around Covent Garden in no kind of rush. I pottered about with my ipod blaring in my ears, singing Paloma Faith songs whilst garnering all sorts of strange looks from people who were passing.

I popped into some of the music shops on Denmark Street before jumping on the tube and heading back to Highgate, vowing that the time has come finally for me to get back to the gym. Newcastle’s food leaves a great deal to be desired, and I have to attempt to unclog some of my arteries!
I'm currently watching the Strictly Come Dancing final with my dear friend Jo. I haven’t seen her for far too long, and it's fabulous to have her sitting on the sofa next to me. We’ve actually known each other for the best part of 20 years, which is as wonderful as it is shocking. We were in the National Student Drama Company together. My first memory of her was a trip to the animal park in Golder’s Hill Park in the long, hot summer of 1994. We had a picnic and fed the deer and it seems like another world, which is fast vanishing into the mists of my mind.

Tonight is the first night she’s ever had away from her two kids, and it must be very strange for her to be away from them. Our two children, the two rats, have been out to play and took very much to her; so much, in fact, that they marked their territories by weeing all over her arms! Suffice to say, they’ve now gone back into their cages.

December 12th 1660, and Pepys was up early despite the weather being really bad, with rain and high winds. He went with his wife, Lady Batten and her maid by barge to Woolwich to see the wreckage of the Assurance, which had recently sunk with the loss of many lives. Only the upper deck, and its masts were visible above the water, which must have been a rather ghostly sight. The bad weather had also taken out another ship, the Kingsdale, which made everyone worry that the fleet's planned trip to Africa was doomed.
Lady Batten, who'd been terrified throughout the journey to Woolwich, refused to travel back into London, and insisted that Elizabeth stay with her. Pepys returned home alone to find his maid, Jane Birch doing the monthly wash.