Hannah Firmin

To the Peacock Gallery at the children's school to see an exhibition by Hanna Firmin, who is probably best known for her cover artwork for the books of Alexander McCall Smith. Very pretty wood- and lino-cuts.

We really liked a linocut called Rough Seas, but it was £50; fortunately, there was another one called Topiary that we liked almost as much, but was only £10 pounds. After some small talk with the artist, we left slightly ashamed that we'd picked the cheaper picture, but comforted ourselves with the usual mantra of those who have been less generous than they possibly could have been, "Well, ten pounds is ten pounds".

If I were an artist, I don't think I could bear to sit in a gallery with chumps like us making snap, ill-informed judgements over my work. I don't think I could even work in a shop where I was responsible for choosing the stock; I find almost anyone - even someone who I think has no taste - making a judgement on my own taste nearly unbearable. Is there a syndrome that results in hyperfragility of the ego?

How do I get to Staines Moor?

How do I get to Staines Moor?"

Never a question I thought I'd ask myself, but today I did. And lo, Jehovah hath smiled favourably on his servant, and hath guided his hand to multimap.com and movethst his hand right speedily to find a public footpath that lead him literally right to it.

Braving force nine gusts and skipping deftly over the muddy patches and semi-decayed dog turds that seem to be an ever-present feature of the urban-rural borderlands, I took a stroll out there this lunchtime to see what it was like. And what do you know? Genuine ancient moorland (unploughed for over 1000 years, apparently), just off the Heathrow flightpath and right next to the M25. What a find!

Amazing to be out walking amongst cows, skylarks, kestrels, and all manner of tits, warblers, and other feathery fluttery things only ten minutes from the office, and being able to stop off for the necessaries in Waitrose and riffle through the unfashionable and deformed seconds in TK Maxx on the way back! How can life possibly get any better?