- Red lipstick. The beauty editor at work declared a couple of weeks ago that I should try wearing red lipstick - and kindly supplied me with a couple to try out. It works well as an appetite suppressant as it gets grotesquely smeared if I eat or drink anything. SO FASHION! But, you know, it does look quite fierce during the brief intervals in the day when I am neither eating nor drinking.
- Cats. I have been avoiding cats for about twenty years, since I used to sleep over at my friends’ homes, pet their cats, and wake up in the middle of the night breathless with asthma. Cats made me so sick that I became a cat-hater; I equated cat-ownership with anti-social behaviour. But this week I am house-sitting for a friend with a cat and LO AND BEHOLD I have not wheezed once and I have even given the cat several pats. Could I have outgrown my allergy? Could this represent a new possibility for pet ownership? I still prefer dogs.
- Living in West London. I’ve lived south, north and east but never west in London. But the house in which I am sitting with the cat is there. Such wide streets! So leafy! Men at the bus stop who are clearly bankers! Eastbound Central Line to work! It evokes a sense of disorientation that is mild and pleasant.
