Moving south

I had a bit of a depressing start to the day, waking up at 5am with a chronic sore throat and having to take an Aspirin in order to get off to sleep again. Both of us took a night nurse before bed last night which instantly turned us into zombies, so the pain must have been quite severe to wake me up at all.

We eventually surfaced at 11.30am, which implies how knackered we both were, and, as a result of all that sleep I've felt a great deal better today. The cold is moving south, so maybe I'll be coughing like a child with TB tomorrow...

We did brunch in a greasy spoon in Muswell Hill, and were just a little bit excited to learn, en route, that a Bill's has opened up in the area, which will be useful for future fancy occasions.

I was meant to be hooking up with old music school friends for a belated birthday tea, but illness stopped play (everyone's ill at the moment) and we've decided to postpone, which made me feel rather glum. Nathan was out all afternoon, so I sat and worked on the living room sofa with the telly on in the background for company whilst occasionally peering out of the window at the beautiful sunshine, wishing I had someone to see or something to do.

Fortunately Ted Thornhill (one of the people I was meant to be seeing this evening) called to say he was in the Flask in Highgate, so I went up there instead and met his absolutely adorable girlfriend, Gersende, for the first time. She's what's known in the relationship trade as a "keeper." Interesting, quirky, open, kind and pretty as a button. I was astonished to learn they'd been together almost a year, an indication of the fact that I haven't seen Ted for way too long.

We caught up as best we could. Distilling a year into salient sentences is always somewhat challenging if you don't want your existence to read like a CV. Ted's doing very well as a journalist at the Daily Mail. And no, that doesn't make him a right wing prig!

So that's my day, really. I walked back home from Highgate Village in that electric blue light you only get after the sun has set on glorious summer nights. The church up in the village was all lit up and looked stunningly beautiful against the night sky. Ted purred as he walked through Pond Square, and I realised, yet again, how lucky I am to live in these parts.