Lucy, ya made a sinner out of me.

Today redcountess had a sudden surfeit of spoons, so we went for a Grand Day Out in Covent Garden. Five bath bombs from Lush, some fudge things from Thornton's, a soprano busking opera (Delibes' Flower Duet, doing a mélange of both parts), Liz's inner six-year-old going red food colouring in the Disney shop and a pot of unspeakably good coffee at Coffee, Cake and Kink, which you must all go to. Emily is the Best Coffee Waitress Ever.

After a morning's eye-opening research, I spent the afternoon with my head a businessy blur. I have a Plan.

In the meantime, I've had annoyingly little permanent to apply for, so I'll be going all-out on contract seeking. I welcome your recommendations on London umbrella companies to go for and to avoid. (If you have a strong opinion you don't want your name attached to publicly, please do email it to dgerard at gmail dot com.)