Hamster on wheel

Coming back to London for concentrated periods plays havoc with my equilibrium. My calm days in Manhattan turn into head-spinning endurance rallies in London, trying to balance work, friends and dull admin. Shooting twelve hour days every weekday means I don’t have any time to go to banks, do admin, make ‘phone calls or do anything at all, or so it seems. Mind you, it's amazing how much one can fit in: I’ve only been back in London for three days but, with 7am starts & a refusal to accept jet lag, I've managed to go through & chase more clothes (what DO 8yd old girls wear?) for our 70 page shoot, fit in two meetings, my car breaking down, an MRI at the hospital, seven PR appointments, editing & packing my winter clothes for NY, a dinner party, a lunch, supper with Miss P, the handing over of chipmunk finger puppets to my goddaughter, and a vist to the Obstetrics Hospital to see J, D & baby Oscar George who is finally out of ICU after what sounds like the most traumatic birthing experience imaginable.

In the whirl of getting everything done it hasn't escaped me that London is achingly expensive, staggeringly cold and hard to get around without a car. My father’s loaned MX5 broke down as I was reversing into a parking space outside Miss P’s last night, and I am still in shock from the discovery that were I to attempt to arrive in the outer reaches of Muswell Hill for a dinner party tonight via public transport from Highbury New Park it would take 1hr45, & involve a ten minute walk either end, plus 2 buses and a train. By car this is about a 20 minute journey, tops. However a minicab wld charge £20/$40 – each way. Instead I have prevailed upon A&A to chauffeur me by bribing them with the promise of their overdue wedding present. Now I just have to find it within the piles of my stuff stashed under my sister's stairs.