Amazing, really. Boss was in the office all day today, and the words "Good morning" were the only ones we exchanged. It really is transport that gets him thinking - and phoning. He'll be on the early train to London tomorrow, so that will be ninety minutes of stress for me.

I went to London briefly at the weekend, and saw big H and little O. Also, of course, Demelza and Ben. I visited Wandsworth shopping centre, and was alarmed by how alarmed I felt. Everyone seems to rush so much in London, and talk on mobile phones all the time, even though they seem to hunt in packs, (they don't seem to need to say anything to the people they are actually with), and it seems quite soulless and frightening to me.Perhaps I am wrong, and it is just a sort of party that I don't understand, or haven't been invited to, or have forgotten how to behave at.

I have visited countries all over the world, and have slept, for example, in Tokyo airport, but I have never felt so alarmed as I felt in the middle of Wandsworth amongst my own countrymen, all speaking my language, but not to me, and not even to each other. I was glad to get back home. I must be getting old. Who was it who once said they dreaded the "elderly cough on the stair"? Well, I live in a flat, so I shall at least be spared that.

I was so happy this morning to go into my garden and see how lovely it is, and appreciate the work I did at the weekend. I untangled a windchime on the blossom tree, and watered all the plants, and then just stood. I was looking at the garden, and an enormous seagull was looking at me from the chimney stack across the way. I wonder if it's the same chap who perches outside my fourth floor window at work and taps his beak against the glass. Strangely, I had the window wide open today because of the heat, and he didn't come to visit. Maybe, he's like Boss - only wants to know me when I am not actually right in front of his nose.