We’re back!

Yesterday morning: mask, snorkel, fins and bikini. Swimming with sea turtles in Egypt.

Yesterday night: long underwear, jeans, long-sleeve top, cashmere sweater, heavy fleece, wooly socks, winter boots, rubber gloves. Swabbing down one of 11 separate “accidents” perpetrated during our absence by elderly and incontinent cat Yuri. Outdoor temperature freezing, central heating borked, apartment filthy, fridge empty, bills piled up on mat.

One thing about London: you know when you’re home!

On the bright side, the mailman had left the following presents from me to me:

• A sweet little Bestway day dress pattern, spotted on eBay by Taylor
• This classic beginner’s book on tailoring, recommended by The Cutter & Tailor
• A lucky-dip box of vintage patterns (spotted by Mena from the Sew Weekly, who holy smokes has an eye for bargains)
• Dana Thomas’s Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Lustre, a fascinating and disturbing book about how the luxury industry stopped being about exquisitely made goods and started being about mass-produced tat sprinkled with fairy dust

I’ll be back at the Bernina right after I’ve mopped up the last of the cat pee!