Anybody else struggle with this? I am dragging myself very slowly through to the finishing line - book group choice, wouldn't you know, and no excuse as we've had two months over the summer to read it. And I'd swear it grows 50 pages longer on the bedside table every night ... why does every mediocre novel have to be so long these days? I thought it was going to be about salvaging Renaissance paintings after the war ... but that barely features, and the only interesting character disappears until p191 by which time I was thoroughly bored with the rest of them. 'Moving, wise, poetic and funny,' said the Daily Mail. 'Contrived, over-blown and doesn't know when to stop,' is my verdict. Oh, for a savage red pen to cut out the adjectives!

There's definitely a hint of autumn in the air, so who knows how many balmy evenings are still in store? Holland Park is such a lovely setting for opera and we really enjoyed last night's performance of Vaughan Williams' Sir John in Love, sitting in the front row in big, comfy armchairs ... if only other theatres would copy! A last-minute decision mid-afternoon, so no time to organise a picnic ... decades ago, when I must have had more energy, we used to have huge, elaborate picnics in the park before the performance. (Showed my friend the railings where I got bloodily impaled after we got locked in after closing time - shudder! I was never the type who could clear a fence with a skip and a jump!) As I'm deeply immersed in a food history project right now, I was giggling at that Shakespearean insult, 'You Banbury cheese!' ... and wondered how many of the audience would get it. As for "let the sky rain potatoes ... hail kissing-comfits and snow eringoes" ... I could have pointed them to a rather tasty pie recipe.

Oh dear, it's been two months - is Mrs M displaying any vital signs? I don't like to declare her dead after so many years! She's still gadding about but has lost the urge to write. I felt like I hadn't been to the theatre for ages - although looking at the sidebar, it's more that I haven't seen anything I've particularly enjoyed. But last night's Much Ado at the National was a brilliant night out on a warm evening - balmy stroll across the river, quick Pimm's to get in the mood, and Shakespeare that was as 'wow' as any big West End musical. Lots of laughs and fabulous sets and costumes - I'd happily go again tonight!