Enjoyed a visit to a Livery dinner at the Goldsmith Hall recently, and had fun breathing in the atmosphere of tradition: the silver there is simply amazing and the surviving flavour of ancient ceremony, saw many old friends from the world of museums and another friend (who works at the V and A) who I have seen for 20 years, I can remember picnicking with her at Ostia Antica in 1984. She looked just the same, I felt grey. The dinner jacket looked all right in the dark, but I was a bit worried when is tood up to give my speech that the light from the lectern picked up all the dog hairs which our young Jack Russell puppy leaves everywhere!

In fact, I was worried I would not get there because of the snow, but the train managed to crawl all the way to London, miracle of miracles. I have been reading M.R.James ghost stories again which seem to go with the bad weather, and might switch to something more cheerful now the sun is peeking through. We took a couple of days off in Norfolk  – a chance to escape with the print out texts of my book and get up early to work on them, and then enjoy walks on the finest beaches in England at Holkham Bay and Wells. We even managed a boat trip to see the seals at Blakeney Point, with young Archie, the jack Russell, tucked into my coat.