rightness

Last year, Mr McMuffin and I were devastated by the news of his friend's baby dying. Mr McMuffin kept up sporadic email contact with the mother, but given that they were new friends and they had returned to Canada to live, the emails had tapered off. Funnily enough, he was talking yesterday about how he was keen to get in touch again and find out how things were for them and I also came across pictures of their baby when searching for something else in our inbox.

At work today, I bumped into a close friend of the couple, who shared the wonderful news that they were now the proud parents of a baby girl. I can't say how happy this makes me for them and (selfishly) for me, I hadn't realised how much I needed to know there was some joy ahead for this lovely couple.

monsoon season

The hammock arrived earlier this week and it is fantastic. At one point Mr McMuffin and I were both lounging in it, so relaxed that we were totally unconcerned that Babycake might have been in the kitchen alone and juggling knives at that.

Unfortunately, the rain that failed to arrive over the last few years, leaving us with a hosepipe ban each summer, appears to have arrived in one long shower and shows no sign of letting up until September. Bring on the heatwave.

birthday

It was my birthday today. I had a lovely time. Gypsy Tart looked after Babycake while Mrs McMuffin and I went to Greenwich to see a movie and have a wander around. We saw Tell No One, a French film of an American best selling thriller, which is quite unusual in itself. Very good film. Mrs McMuffin, who devours these thrillers at an alarming rate, managed to resist the temptation to tell me what happens. I got some good gifts too. Mrs McMuffin got me an Apple Airport Extreme, which works even better than I thought it would, and Ms Ginger Cake got me a lovely (*) speck cover for my MacBook. A good day.

celebrity

It is Mr McMuffin's birthday tomorrow and we had thought of going away for the weekend. I say thought about it, because as we both considered the planning and preparation involved, we lost all will to go away. As usual, we decided to go into town and wander around and as usual got sucked into the Borough market and Tate Modern trap. Anyway, we had a nice day and ate the best scallops I have ever tasted, from a little stall in the market.

Babycake was in his element, lots to do and see and lots of people to do it with. He draws attention from so many people, I began to find it all a little overwhelming. Mr McMuffin is used to this and took it in his stride, but I could only gape at the goodwill this little lad generates. Within the space of fifteen minutes he had been tickled under the chin by a man taking a stroll with his wife, told he was 'very cute and beautiful' by a precocious French teenager in the lifts at the Tate and in the cities exhibition had his photograph taken by a Korean photographer who also signed a photo of the boy as a gift from one celebrity to another.

Now, I think the boy is quite cute and adorable, but that is normal. I can't quite see how other people are so taken by him and this doesn't seem quite normal to me. Mr McMuffin thinks it's the boy's 'Manga eyes' that do it (if you recall in Paris, little Babycake gained three Japanese fans, young men in their twenties who took umpteen photographs posing with him) and this may be part of it, but he does have something other than cuteness, possibly baby charisma and I hope he retains this when the cuteness goes.

two things...

Britain's Got Talent was excellent, and I was happy to see Paul Potts win, although I imagine now that he has blown his cover, the authorities will want to talk to him about his genocidal tendencies. Six years old Connie Talbot was amazing, and she brought a little tear to my eye when she sang. It's been a lovely week with this great programme to look forward to every night. What am I going to do now?

The other thing is that we went to Greenwich Market today and I had my very first, and probably last, Tarot reading. It was very, very interesting. He said lots of things about me and my life which, although vague, rang a bell. After he was done we talked a little bit about the cards and the process. Even as he was talking I was thinking about what he was doing. I'm not talking about trickery or conning here, but rather he seemed to be engaged in a real process which seemed to involve a pretty sophisticated use of counter-transference. I was very impressed. I did feel a little sorry for him at the beginning because he became all tongue-tied and he apologetically confided in me that he was feeling very nervous talking to me. He lent forward and almost whispered, that I wasn't his usual client, "they're mostly women", he said. I could see that I broke his little heart when he asked me if I had an email address. I asked him what he planned to send me, and he said that he was going to send me some blurb about himself because he offers readings outside of the market. His little face crumpled when I told him that I didn't think I would be having another reading.

britain's got talent

This is essential viewing. I have become completely hooked. As I watched it tonight, I realised that I am not interested in the talent. I want to see the freaks, and I am not disappointed. It is the funniest thing I have seen on TV for ages. My favourite tonight has got to be the poor deluded fool who thinks herself as bit like Madonna. As she put it, "I've got the looks and I've got the moves."

second life

There isn't much time to actually live my first life, but I am fascinated by this whole second life thing and want to learn more. Is anyone involved?

deep breath

Babycake is at it again. Today he hurled himself out of the bath so quickly, I'm not really that sure what happened, only that one minute he was standing, the next lying face down and parallel to the bath, screaming his little head off. He seems fine, although he has a nice bruise on his forehead to match the bruise on his nose from where the boy at playgroup bashed him.

His skin is mottled with bruises and scratches and his eyes are shadowed (oh teething joy, he woke at 3.30am and didn't sleep until he collapsed with exhaustion in his high chair, eating his porridge at 7am) and the poor chap looks a bit of a mess. Having said that, he's still extremely gorgeous and if he wasn't my baby, I would covet him.

ungenerous

In her defence, Katie Price/ Katie Andre/ Jordan/ Dissociative Identity Disorder Girl had long, shapely legs and was taller than I thought she'd be. Her skin colour, on the other hand made mahogany look classy. How she achieved such a dark and ruddy brown is beyond me.

Anyway, I'm just popping up to post about my excitement at ordering a fabulous family hammock and hammock stand. I'm just getting used to the idea that I work and earn money so that I can spend some money on things that I really would like and speaking to lovely niece yesterday (who plans to spend the whole summer lying on a hammock after her exams) inspired me to get the hammock of my dreams. I intend to use it every summer for the rest of my life. I really hope that it lives up to my expectations, I have a little fantasy of us McMuffins snuggled up in it on a perfect summer evening and Babycake all grown up, reminiscing about how great it was...

jordan

I know I haven't posted in a while but I was moved to tell you about our brush with celebrity today. The Page 3 Stunna™, Jordan, who prefers to be known as Katie Price, best selling author, these days was at Lakeside Shopping Centre today for a book signing. There we were in the Early Learning Centre minding our own business trying to find the perfect tricycle for little Babycake when she and her huge entourage of burly minders came swanning through the shop. I must admit that I was a little interested in seeing those celebrated breasts. Yes, they were as huge. In fact, bigger than any that I have ever seen. I also noticed that she was heavily pregnant. The biggest surprise for me, was how rough she looks. She had a perfect orange tan, but neither this, nor the plastered on makeup hid her terrible skin. She had on a very short skirt which showed off her incredible fat thighs, which were pock-marked by cellulite. All in all, a very disappointing celebrity sighting. Nevertheless when she left the shop the crowd outside cheered. Amazing. Ain't Photoshop wonderful?