Hestia and London (in numbers)

4 - days in the glorious city

£5.76 - each, for breakfast in the hotel.  Shouldn't have booked it. Vauxhall has wonderful hispanic/portugese delis - could have had massive breakfast for all 4 of us for a fiver.

3 - of course there were only 3 of us, not 4 of us in London......  *brain a bit fuddled*

£30 each to get on!!!!

£30 - to go on the London Eye.  EACH.  We stood on the ground with ice cream cones and watched it go round and then spent £60 on BOOKS.

1 - small case with 4 days of clothing crammed in.  £60 of books can really dent your clothing space.  Came home dressed like a fecking yeti.

2- evening meals in the local Spanish restaurant - tapas - 7 plates for 3 of us.  I was so unwell I thought I had gallstones.

4 hours spent standing upright in the bathroom because of hideous pains that may or may not be gallstones. No-one came to see if I was alright, even though I was moaning gently with the pain and lack of sleep.

5 - number of museums visited - Natural History (Dinosaur heaven for a small boy); V&A (heaven for Hestia); Science Museum (Heaven for Tertarus); Imperial War Museum (small boy/big boy heaven) and....some other museum that I have temporarily forgotten.

1 - store that I actually got into on Regent Street - National Geographic Shop.  Chap behind the counter made my day by looking startled when I spoke to him in perfectly enunciated Scottish English.  He thought, for some inexplicable reason, that I was Spanish.  Made my bloody day! Wandered around pretending to be Penelope Cruz....

20 minutes - permitted shopping time in Harrods.  They do not have any ordinary looking burds working in the beauty hall there, do they?  That said, the girls at Chanel were very helpful when I looked utterly crestfallen at failing YET AGAIN to secure the illusive Paradoxal nail polish.....

1 - lunch spent with my younger brother who was down in Lahndan on business.

0 - the number of pounds that my younger brother had on him to actually contribute to lunch *sigh* somethings NEVER change.

1- visit to estoteric bookshop Watkins.  Bought a book on Sacred Geometry.  I'm sure I'll read it.  One Day.

100% necessary - my laptop to maintain communication with the Twitterverse...and to work out which Tube Station went with which museum.

Nil - quantity of digital cameras that we remembered to take with us.  Was reduced to buying a disposable camera for going to the dinosaurs in Nat History Museum.  The unfinished spool will lie in a drawer until the day Sonshine is clearing out my things after my funeral.

Nil - quantity of eye-make up remover that I brought with me.  Removed my mascara every night with neat soap on folded up bit of toilet roll.  Class.  Now have eyes like pissholes in snow.

1 - spiritual home - the V&A - I'm coming back to visit just a bit more of it.  Only managed the jewellery, the gallery with all the buddhas, the fashion section and the SHOP!!!!! The SHOP is fablas!!!!  Nearly bought myself a Ballet Russe scarf for £18.50 only to find out at the till it was £185.00!! (note to self - take reading glasses with you EVERYWHERE)

200% disappointed that I didn't manage to meet up with Christina from Fashion's Most Wanted :-(

1 - noisy radiator.  It was like the bowels of a ship when it cranked into gear in the early morning.

nil - hot water for a shower by 8am thanks to the legion of early risers.

5 - breakfasts that consisted of 2 tiny croissants*, 2 half slices of dutch cheese, 2 x quarter slices of gammon, one coffee and a tub of something indescriminate which may, or may not, have been yoghurt.  *Nearly brought one home as a captive wife for Kevin in the breadbin for Part 2 of the experiment into dough eugenics.

100% wanted to stay in London.  I love it.  Much greener than I expected.  OK - people drive like bloody madmen, but I could get used to that......I confess to casting an eye over a sign that said Seasonal Waiting Staff required and wondering whether Tertarus and Sonshine would really miss me if I ran away to London to pursue my dreams.

If only I knew what my bloody dreams were.