on Friday night a few of us went to the top of the Gherkin (the giant pointy thing in the middle of London – apparently one of the most expensive buildings in the world – valued at 1.6 billion) – we had a champagne to celebrate Lisa’s birthday and Claudia even brought a birthday cake in.

From the top you get great views over London as the sun goes down. Below us, the two buildings from which London has been run over the past 1000 years face each other across the Thames. On the South side, the Mayor’s building – entirely made of glass. On the North, the stone fortress of the Tower of London – built by William the Conqueror to let England know that it was under the control of France.

It’s a good indication of what’s changed – then, our leaders had to protect themselves with moats and armies to stop terrorist attack. Today their buildings are glass and they come to work by bike.

We’re being constantly told we’re living in a dangerous world where people are out to bring down our civilization… and they’re using that excuse to put fortresses around the glass buildings, to give the police more power - to move us slowly back across the river towards the Tower.


Mum
My mum is out of Hospital now – although she’s in some kind of suit that stops her moving her hip and it looks like she’ll be in it for 6 weeks at least. She’s in good spirits, though and seems receptive to the idea that she may need to make changes to her house so she doesn’t do her hip any more damage.

I’d like Lisa to go in as an OT and do an assessment for her, but I don’t want her to do it unless my parents agree that they’ll take on board her plans – which are likely to involve a new shower, different living room chairs and an eye level oven.

None of which my parents will want to do because they’ve only just finished redecorating and they’re thinking of moving anyway (thinking of moving can become a long term practice for my parents – they were thinking of moving from their last house for 20 years before they actually did anything about it).

Still, we did set up a broadband internet account for them over the weekend. They’ve been thinking about setting one up for a couple of years at least, and it will be such a benefit to them… hopefully Mum will be able to do her shopping online. Hopefully she’ll also be able to have something to do while she’s recuperating.

Hello, Mum – if you’re reading this, it means your broadband is working!


Lisa’s Birthday
On Saturday we had a lovely night out together for Lisa’s birthday. Every time we do get out, we promise ourselves to do it more often.

We went to beauberry house http://www.beauberryhouse.co.uk/
For dinner. It’s a great restaurant in Dulwich – French and Japanese if that makes any sense.

I think there must be some kind of trend for posh chefs to use king crab right now. I had it on Saturday, but it was also served on the Orient Express…

I think the chefs may have seen the TV series “deadliest catch” in which the king crab fishing expeditions are described as the most dangerous in the world… I think they’ve decided that because they’re really difficult to catch, they must be great to eat.

They are – but I’m not sure how much better than, say, Cornish crabs they are. The reason I’m not sure is partly because I’ve still got a cold and couldn’t actually taste anything on Saturday night….


Modeling Sunday
Sam’s fashion and tailoring courses are coming to an end and on Wednesday there’s a show at the college in which she’s exhibiting clothes she’s been making – a suit, a corset, some underwear and a cloak.

She wants to put up some photos in the background, so we had a photoshoot on Sunday with Lisa as the model and me as the photographer.

We went for a paparazzi style shoot in the street, but nobody in East Dulwich thought Lisa was overdressed for Lordship Lane….