'Allo, chere Bloggy

Good to know you are back with us, metaphorically if not physically. Will await your comments on Hotel World with bated breath. I know Katie has almost finished it and may even have enjoyed it. She has promised to look up the appropriate ghost stories for our December edition but has been somewhat preoccupied by the imminent departure of Erica to the CAB, and by a trip to Nice. How cosmopolitan our group is, nipping off for random weekends to the continent.

Hope you have a wonderful weekend in London, Darth; what about Hockney exhibition or BP Prize Portrait exhibition? You may need 6 weeks to cover all suggestions for your London entertainment. Am champing at the bit to get down there myself but other engagements intervene. Never mind, I shall at least be going to see the beach statues in the Wirral this weekend with retired and wine-sodden sister and Jonathan. Can it be true that Sefton Council are having them removed on health and safety grounds (the statues, not Jonathan and retired wine-sodden sister, although I don't know...) ??

I look forward to the other exploits these women's groups get up to, young Batey; make no mistake - I am game to have a go at pole dancing though I don't feel (a) that I would be good at it (b) that I would be at all enticing while doing it and (c) the only pole which might accommodate my gyrations would be the one at the local fire station and hey! guess what? They're being removed on health and safety grounds. Dammit. We'll just have to take up fencing (with epees, not waney lap).

Would appreciate suggestions for biographies/travel books/other genres for our list, please. We ought to try other avenues, don't you think?

Nanny x