Moth-balled

Today's been one of those days which I will be glad to see the back of. Everything seemed to be stalling before it had begun, and I had a list of things to do which seemed to be about a mile long.

At lunchtime, just as we were about to set off for Brent Cross to buy a load of stuff for my ludicrous walk, which starts on Thursday (weather forecast suddenly awful!), I went into my wardrobe, looking for a pair of arch supports to put into my trainers. It was at that moment that I realised my clothes had been eviscerated by moths. Nathan is so diligent about the little critters in his part of the bedroom, but because I don't tend to wear wool, I'd assumed that moths wouldn't want to eat anything of mine. Turns out my clothes are utterly scrumptious, particularly the jacket I got married in and the ludicrously expensive coat I bought a the beginning of the year to wear to the premiere of Beyond The Fence, both of which now have holes in them. I know they're just things, and that anything that reminds me of Beyond The Fence probably deserves to become moth-eaten and ragged, but it made me feel a little upset. The wedding suit particularly...

We've fumigated everything, thrown much away and taken the very special things to the dry cleaners. I guess all things must fade away at some point: memories, photographs, little nicknacks, people... it simply makes me want to live a little more in the present.

Speaking of which, I drove to Milton Keynes tonight to assist on another quiz. It was a very charming occasion. The client was the Mind charity, who seem like a genuinely lovely bunch. We sat down with a group of them for some food and I was hugely taken with them all. The technician for the evening spoke with a familiar accent and I asked if he was from Northampton, which he was. He looked about my age, so I asked him which school he'd gone to, and he answered Roade, which is where Fiona and a whole heap of other people I know went. He was in the year above Fiona, and knew her very well. He was a drummer and they'd been in the same production of Godspell alongside Zara Nunn, who now writes musicals, Sam Jane, whom I lived with when I first moved to London, and Helen Whitehurst who used to lead the Northamptonshire Youth Orchestra. It was a bizarre encounter. Often when you meet those sorts of people there's a lot of uncomfortable moments when everyone pretends to "vaguely know" the person in question, but he seemed to know them all really well, and it was lovely to fill him in on how they're all doing. He asked if Fiona was still playing and nearly fell of his seat when I told him she was touring with Placebo!

When I emerged from the hotel, the entire car park was covered in thick frost, and I had to sit in the car for five minutes with the heating on to clear the windscreen. The first frost of the year... what a time to decide to walk the length of the Nene!!