Insomnia

The air was incredibly still and soupy today. I have seldom known London so fragrant. Every aroma seemed to loiter. I almost felt that I could reach out and touch smells! We drove over to the East End this afternoon and I could smell some long gone person's perfume hovering in the air. Flowers were intoxicating. The pavements smelt of electricity.

The skies opened at lunch time. Piles of rain dropped from the sky. We made it to a local cafe just before the deluge. Seconds later a pair of young girls rushed in, both of them sharing a flimsy umbrella and laughing. The five customers in the cafe sat with the cafe owner watching the rain bouncing wildly off the roofs of passing cars exchanging astonished looks and nervous jokes. It's amazing what a sense of camaraderie people have when sheltering from rain. There was more than a whiff of wartime spirit about it!

I spent the afternoon in a wool shop talking to an absolute diamond of a woman. That's the sort of thing that happens when your husband is a leading knit wear designer, don't you know...

The Beyond The Fence-related insomnia has returned again with a vengeance. I'm getting all sorts of crazy flashbacks which make me gasp in my sleep and then wake me up sweating. It's not much fun. Just when I thought I'd started to recover. I guess these things come in waves don't they? The healing process isn't entirely straight forward.