An artist date, really. Had lunch with a friend then wandered the shops of Covent Garden, Charing Cross Road and Oxford Street. Bought a book too which looks really really interesting: “The Artist’s Reality” by Mark Rothko. Looking forward to reading that one very much.

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During the course of which I was doused in orange juice and came across a great Romanian folk singer performing in Holland Park. A grand day!

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Dropped in to the Oxfam Sound & Vision shop at Ealing on my way back from collecting my passport from the post office and found they had CDs of Carson Cooman’s piano works, Telemann’s wind concerti and the Jean-Yves Thibaudet complete Satie piano works, all in tip-top condition for measly sums (£10 and some change for the lot of them). Yay! Considering this jaunt and the brief foray into the accompanying bookshop to be my artist date for the week.

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The main intention was to buy black sesame seeds (which I did) but also to have a nose around. It looks a brilliant shop – my only quibble is that the assorted spice mixes don’t say what’s in them, which means I have to quiz the assistant for everything that looks intriguing to check it doesn’t have either cumin or coriander in it. Also found Books for Cooks which I was terribly strong and didn’t enter.

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I was going to do the next bit of the long walk out of the first volume of Time Out London Walks but to do that I’d have had to go to Piccadilly Circus and quite frankly, I couldn’t be bothered changing trains. So I hopped out at Westminster and walked back to Victoria, then went to the library.

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At the Cass sale in town. Finally got the Derwent Coloursoft pencils I’ve had my eye on. I was only going to get 36, but they didn’t have the 36 tins, 24 seemed too few. I was seriously considering the 48 (in a lovely wooden box, but very heavy) when I discovered that they had the 72 for only £3 more than the 48 – £40 reduced from £104! I guess the outcome was inevitable after that, but it took a while to get there. I also found some nice pastel paper in good cool blues and greys which looks suitable for winter mountain pictures and got a couple of putty rubbers, a black and a sepia drawing pens and a little plastic palette which will allow me to more quickly remove my watercolours from any communal table they may be occupying with a minimum of fuss. Lots of fun

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Finally, for the first time in ages and ages and ages I took myself out on an artist date. I was feeling really brain-shrivelled (all that thinking at work – I’m not used to it!) and decided to just get out and revive myself, so I walked from work (Clerkenwell/Islington) to Virgin and then HMV on Oxford Street and listened to some music – in Virgin I checked out a few pop CDs I hadn’t tried before. Might buy Mika’s album some day – it sounds quite interesting. Then in HMV I just drifted round the classical section, listening to the Mitsuko Uchida Beethoven album they were playing. Didn’t actually buy anything, just listened, but it was very refreshing.

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