So, has been a little while. Today I have had one of those brilliant unexpected days, but more of that in a bit.

Went to Longleat with Beckie this week. Even though it rained it was great, it is an amazing place. We saw Lord Bath in a rather interesting pair of bright yellow velvet trousers... and we saw where Johnny the Otter used to live. We saw Nico the gorilla and Henry the giraffe. We didn't see Wheelie though. We found pictures of Head of Section Darren Beesley and Ben Fogle... was a bit gutted not to meet the real Ben Fogle but hey you can't have everything. So yeah, great couple of days, just a pity about the weather.

And then today. Was amaaaaarrrrrzing. I hadn't really planned a lot for today. Last night I'd toyed with the idea of taking myself off to Lancaster and sitting somewhere with my journal. Ashton or Jubilee Tower or somewhere. I'd also thought about taking myself off to the seaside somewhere. I love the sea, and it helps me to think. Sadly I live about as far away from the sea as I possibly can in this country... Anyway, remembered that I had a back massage booked at 11 to try and sort out all my horrid knots, so that put paid to those ideas a little bit. So I decided to pop into Birmingham to get a new diary and pyjamas. Rock n roll. Thought I might have a walk around the canal area too cos it was nice and sunny for a change. Anyway, when I got to the Bullring the Debenhams end was just rammed and there was all this screaming going on, wasn't very impressed. Went off to do a few bits and bobs then on the way back down to HMV I saw a sign on the staging that was up on the bottom floor saying that How to Look Good Naked was being filmed... well, how could I resist a bit of Gok? I LOVE him! I want him to be my gay best friend. And I want him to take me shopping. So I found myself a spot on the second floor to watch catwalk show number 2. It was great. It was, I think, a mother and daughter called Maria and possibly Barbara (I was stood behind the stage so I couldn't really hear anything that Gok was saying). They looked fantastic. At the end Gok said there'd be 2 more shows. Well, I'd been stood there for about an hour and a half waiting for show 2 and hadn't turned up straight after show 1 so I figured I had a bit of time to do my shopping and then find a new space. So went and did my bits of shopping and then when I came back it was really busy. I suppose a lot of people were just about getting off work, so the only space I could find was rammed up against a store guide up on the 3rd floor. I could see alright from up there but could hear even less, and everyone around me was sooooo boring. Show 3 was a woman called April who seemed to have bucketloads of confidence. Anyway, after the 3rd show I decided to go straight down to the bottom floor to get a space early for the last show so I could properly see. By this time it was about half past 6 and the place was emptying a bit. I was stood with a pretty good bunch of people, right on the left hand corner of the runway. The show didn't start till almost 7.30 so my feet were killing cos had been standing up watching/shopping since 1.30, but it was the best one by far. We all had a dance and a sing and Gok was great with the crowd. Because the shops were shutting there were only people there who wanted to watch and join in so the atmosphere was great, and it was the series finale so all the crew and Gok were quite hyped up. It was brilliant. This time it was a woman called Jane and she was really funny, it was great to watch. And Gok's family were in the audience too which was cool. I got filmed quite a lot in the last show, which was exciting but wish I'd known before, because I was wearing the worst outfit and had the worst hair ever. I was wearing a top from my Uni days which if I'm honest is a bit on the tight side these days, I had my fringe plaited and clipped up, no make up on so ridiculous shiny face. Oh dear. So they will no doubt cut me out of the final edit! By the time we finished it was almost 8.30 so I went back off to the train, and on the way back I just thought to myself, today was so unexpected but that is what made it so great. So often the days you don't plan are the best. I always used to think this about nights out at Uni. The ones we planned for weeks were always a bit of an anticlimax, whereas the ones planned 5 minutes in advance were usually fantastic. I love days like today. And I love it on days like today when I'm free to follow the impulse. My plan today was to get the shopping done, be home for about 2.30/3ish, do a bit of cleaning, watch a bit of TV, maybe have a bath. And I love that I could throw that plan out of the window at the drop of a hat. Now this probably all sounds rather gushy, but really, today put me in such a good mood because of how unexpected it was. It was the sort of day that reminded me it was good to be alive. It's good to stand with a random group of people all doing the same thing. So yeah. It was just a great day.

Love love love xxx