I never knew this until today...

but having sat down and flicked through 'Scotch Pine', I suddenly realised Allan Drover is left-handed!  It had never occurred to me before, but when he is attacked by the mousetraps in the biscuit tin he damages his left hand - he keeps pressing the 'a' and 's' keys together because his little finger and ring finger are taped together!  Now panicking in case I've made him right-handed at some other point in any of the stories!!

Summertime, an' the livin' is easy...

...which makes for something of a refreshing change!  I've been off work for ten days so far and I must admit that a disproportionate amount of that time has been spent sleeping to try and get over the exhaustion of the end of term.  We had a very emotional last two weeks with lots of goodbyes and surprise presents and meals out and bouquets of flowers... and then the holidays came crashing in and now we're in the middle of them and I'm not quite sure how we got here! 

This, by the way, is a deserted Covent Garden market at about 11pm last Wednesday night.  We'd just been to see the wonderful Tam Mutu as the Phantom in 'Love Never Dies' (again!)and walked up from the Adelphi through the Market.  I just had to stop for photos!  The night before we'd been lucky enough to see David Tennant and Catherine Tate in the hugely enjoyable production of 'Much Ado about Nothing' at Wyndham's Theatre in Charing Cross Road, a late Victorian gem of a theatre - and one I'd never been to before.  Fabulous seats for both shows (although LND wasn't full the audience were vociferous and the cast as brilliant as ever!  This show does NOT deserve to close!) London was lovely and worked its usual magic: we explored Chelsea this time and, having been flattered by the attentions of a group of utterly charming Chelsea Pensioners, were given a personal tour of the Royal Chelsea Hospital Chapel and Great Hall!

From there we went to the Chelsea Physic Garden, a place I've always wanted to visit.  It is a haven of peace and tranquility despite being right on Chelsea embankment, beautiful plants and lovely places to sit and enjoy it all.  And there, in the Tangerine Dream Cafe (yes - really!!!!!!) was the Cake of the Week - probably of the month - Lemon Drizzle - perfect with a strong black coffee although the other options all looked just as tempting! 

It cleansed the palate just as London always cleanses my mind: somehow things seem much clearer after a couple of days of refocusing there!  Came back and ruthlessly savaged the 'new project' and got it to a place where I think I can continue with a first draft.  Don't know why I'm so scared of this one - I have to keep forcing myself to write it!!! Finally, I've made a rather unexpected decision to enrole for a university postgraduate course - part time and distance learning - to start in September.  Part of me thinks I'm certifiable, but I feel if I don't do it now, I probably never will!  We'll see what happens...

This last photo was taken just after the last one - and seconds later they switched the floodlighting off!  It's St Paul's Covent Garden, the Actors' Church - the one that features in the opening of Pygmalion/My Fair Lady - and it's one of my special places.  I've never seen Covent Garden this deserted: I half expected a ghostly coster to show up on the photo, carrying baskets on his head as they did when it really was a fruit market...