I had a thoroughly successful day yesterday, fulfilling an intention to visit the restored Kettles Yard Museum in Cambridge which I read about last year.  (Charming.  Worth a detour)  Even though the route involved travelling the entire length of the North Circular – not something to be undertaken by the faint hearted – we parted the traffic as Moses did the waves, the sun shining on the righteous. And not before time.

Cambridge was perfect; gentler sunshine, prettier rivers and fewer tourists that Venice and an opportunity to eat at the delightful Harriet’s Tea House, full of Japanese people thinking this was how the ordinary British lived on a daily basis. A note to other visitors: beware of the bicycles.  They swoop down on you like manic snowboarders on the piste.  Terrifying.

However, the highlight of the outing was the drive back to London (Am I the only person who breathes a sigh of relief whenever they see ‘London’ on a road sign?) Having  disappointingly not seen a single Eddie Stobbart lorry on the outward journey we saw no less than FIVE going home.  And God had smiled on this venture by sending me a co-driver who was capable not only of spotting a large lorry hurtling towards us at speed but was able to take a photograph in less than twenty minutes. Needless to say that this was not Sluice Nurse who I frequently think should not be driving AT ALL given her inability to see other vehicles and her lamentable reaction times, to say nothing of her motoring convictions.  I may have to consider her position.

Beside this success the rest of the week pales into insignificance.  My son’s birthday, helping to choose the perfect plant for a friend’s fox infested garden (Cordyline in a rather fetching pot) and a visit to the theatre to see ‘The Portrait of Dorian Grey’ which, although excellent in many respects, did not feature a lead actor of breath-taking beauty which is rather the point of the story.

But with 5 Eddie’s in the log, the ducks settled on the pond and a letter in ‘The Times’ nothing can lower my spirits.