A marzipan elephant

Today's been a very bitty day. It started with a visit to a production company in Central London, who, bizarrely, wanted to talk to me about the idea of presenting a documentary series. I'm writing about it because it's  such a peculiar thought! That said, the subject matter is something that I'm utterly passionate (and very knowledgeable) about, so I guess if I were a producer looking for a front man, I might approach me! I'd certainly make a change from Joanna Lumley!

I worked all afternoon, drawing increasingly awful pictures for my storyboard! I started to do some on the tube, but noticed someone looking over my shoulder, and felt so ashamed that I pretended to be doodling surrealist images. Ceci n'est pas un ferret!

I'm now at Philippa's. We've been having a few teething problems with the symphony, so I just needed to get out the house. It was all go when I arrived. Philippa had her army general's hat on, and I was immediately put to work. We've been catering for a children's party; two enormous carrot cakes, which we've been covering with edible flowers, and an elephant that I've crafted entirely from marzipan. I'm very good.

Philippa and the elephant

We've had to be a bit inventive on the food colouring front. Apparently it's impossible to find a food colouring these days which doesn't have warnings plastered all over it along the lines of "highly addictive and may cause psychotic episodes." We're therefore using beetroot and blueberries! Bring back tartrazine, I say. It never did me any harm. Apart from that time I threw a saucepan through a plate glass window cus I was buzzing so much!

February 11th, 1661, and Pepys went to visit Richard Reeve's, where he was shown various telescopes, spy glasses and microscopes, which he referred to as "perspectives." A rather lovely phrase.

My god-daughter's glasses