Lunches, departing children, Hamlet and the CWA

A little better - only two weeks since the last entry.

In which time, I have been to the Lady Mayoress of Canterbury's Ladies of the District lunch - invitation only, of course! - where the guest of honour was Lady Mountbatten. Very interesting, good food and service in Abode, the former Chaucer Hotel. The following day, to London with daughter Louise, to lunch with Katie Fforde, who wanted to interview Lou about her job, as she has a character in her next book who does the same. We are going to the next of Lou's public gigs in London together for Katie too see how it all works in practice.

This week, daughter Philly has finally moved out, to go and live in Cambridge with fellow band members, and take up a temporary job with the Faculty of Engineering. Hollow laughter. I feel rudderless. All four have now gone, and although I was on my own for a couple of years before, it never felt permanent. This time it does.

Yesterday went to see Nothern Ballet's production of Hamlet which was superb. Very controversial and explicit, sexual and torture scenes depicted with graphic realism. Made me cry at the end, though. Difficult thing for a ballet to do...

Still battling on with the CWA conference. Nearly there as far as bookings go, but now have the ghastly finicky bits to do, as well as paying for my own place. Can't afford it, either, but there you go. Where's my second-in-command? Not heard of in ages.

Murder by the Sea has taken a new turn and I feel somewhat happier with it. It won't bear much relation to the original idea, but you can't have everything...