Three Beautiful Things

I am up to date with the posts over Christmas; and also there are posts at Once Around the Park . 1. When I was young Mrs Thatcher was Prime Minister, and she made me think that a woman could do anything, even if there were lots of things that a little girl was not supposed to do or want or hope for. But along the way, it seemed to me, Mrs Thatcher had given up a few of the things I looked forward to being as a woman -- you'd never think of her as beautiful or feminine. And then I would see Benazir Bhutto on the news, and it seemed to me that it might be possible to have it all. 2. I never did get a kitchen timer for Christmas, so I take myself off to Trevor Mottram's cavern of delights. They have all sorts of kitchen timers; including a single red model of the sort I have been particularly hankering after . It is unboxed, and unpriced, so I ask how much it is. The assistant disappears into the back of the shop and comes back sometime later (I have been admiring copper sauc...

1. The traffic lights at the cross roads are not working because the man from the council has the control box open so he can adjust something. Everything is orderly, with drivers waiting politely and waving each other on; but Nick says: 'Had I better see you across the road?' I am amazed and touched by this kindness, but I tell him that if he sees me over the road, he'll have to cross twice as many roads to get to where he's going. 2. I come home to find Abel and Cole have taken away our empty vegetable boxes and replaced them with two full ones. 3. After supper, the box of chocolates comes out and is passed around while we play cards on the rug.

1. Lying in bed with my pink Nintendo DS Lite playing Zelda: Phantom Hour Glass. 2. At Etchingham station, the newspapers are laid out and labelled with the names of their commuters. The station is somehow very cheerful, and I always expect to turn round and see a fire in the grate. 3. While we wait for the pizza, Nick and Tim are going through the papers for old roleplaying campaigns. I am not really listening, but hear a reference to pirates and an animal husbandry: parrots skill. I wonder aloud if my character in the present game could have a parrot. Later that evening, as if by magic, a mechanical bird enters the game. The Professor immediately wants to take it apart, but Sister Justinia is convinced it's alive and has named it 'Birdie'.

1. As the train pulls into Charing Cross, I finish knitting my scarf and put it on. 2. In the Natural History Museum is a collection of coloured diamonds . The display cycles between normal light and UV light, revealing magical colour changes and strange fluorescence. 3. We finally get to meet Rosey's mysterious boyfriend -- Matt has been mentioned an awful lot and appears frequently in photographs , but so far he has kept his head down. As a dutiful big sister, I have been nearly eaten up with curiosity, so it was a relief to meet him at last.

1. Sitting with Granny Pat labelling her new photo album -- at first she makes me write for her, but then she takes the pen from me and I am shocked at how wobbly her writing is now. But as we work through the book, some of her old wit comes through and she makes up funny captions for photos of my siblings pulling faces. And towards the end, her writing seems to firm up a bit. Later she shows me another album the cousins made for her, and she tells me the stories I liked to hear over and over again as a child about what she did in the army. 2. My littlest cousin (who is rapidly becoming not little any more) is shy at first, and doesn't much like talking. She has a Nintendo DS. We discover that it can talk to my pink Nintendo DS Lite, and send each other horrid pictures of owls and dark mountains. 3. Gingerbread with apricot jam covered in chocolate.

1. Just before I put the light on, I notice a paper bag at the end of my bed. I'm sure it wasn't there last night. I wake up properly and realise, that despite prophecies of doom, Father Christmas has dropped off a selection of the sort of small and useful items -- like socks, posh soap, a few secondhand books -- that I never manage to buy for myself. 2. One parcel in particular has been thoroughly investigated, poked, speculated on and prodded by me, Katie and Rosey. But all we can say for certain is that there's lots of tissue paper. Finally I open it and find that my darling man has picked a darling cardigan from one of my favourite shops. It's love at first sight. 3. The cry of 'Dr Who, Dr Who!' goes through the house.

Merry Midwinter, everyone, and thank you for your comments and good wishes. 1. Nick's tea comes with a timer to show him the proper time to take the infuser out of the pot. The teapot is glass so one can enjoy the gold-red colour of the tea. 2. A bhutanese felt hat with rain-diverting tentacles has appeared in my father's study. Coming home after my parents have been away is a game of spot the difference. There are new bells hanging on striped cords, and baskets hanging where there were none before. 3. The Mother has put decorations in all our bedrooms. Mine is the pink polar bear, a sheep with dangly legs and a pair of gold musical instruments. She says it because we're not having stockings this year.

1. Town is busy, apart from a woman and a black dog who stand in a doorway watching the shoppers go by. 2. Katie comes round to my way of thinking that it's nice to unwrap a present when the person who gave it to you can see (thank you Jules!) So we take time out in the afternoon. We have raided each other's Amazon lists. She is as thrilled by the book of erotic knitting patterns as I am by my Loony Tunes DVDs. I wonder about the ideas of our homelife this little vignette will generate, however. 3. It is so foggy that familiar things take on strange shapes -- a lumpy tree trunk appears to have someone hugging it, so much so that I worry that they are lost and confused.

1. During the night we are jolted from sleep by a crash coming from the kitchen. In the morning, I find a glass has fallen off the shelf on to the tiled floor. It is lying on the floor miraculously unharmed. 2. In the dark, a man walks towards me. A streetlight shines through his orange plastic bag so it glows like a lantern. 3. A kind boyfriend who calls quarter of an hour later than I said I'd be with him 'prompt'.

Friday was my last day at work. I'm taking three months off to do some writing and various other things and get my head together. I've been planning this for a while, and it's something I want and need; but I am sad to be leaving the company where I've been very happy for nearly four years. 1. The company gives me a hotel voucher, which I'll use for a weekend away. It comes in a smart dark green box tied with a grey ribbon. I'm looking forward to researching the perfect break. 1b part 1. Spending a cold day at work in the warmer office playing at drawing films on the whiteboard for people to guess. 1b. part 2. A large slice of cloudlike chocolate torte. 2. Nigel tries to explain what he means when he says I have 'an edge'. 3. When I say goodbye at the end of the evening, He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named picks me up and whirls me round. 4. Nick comments that he hates waiting for taxis: 'They're always late, and I don't like people who are late....

1. On a morning when I am late, remembering that I have Kellogg's Variety Pack on my desk at work. 2. A line of present bags in Nick's hall. 'That one's for you.' 3. My chicken gun ga ree is served in a blue ceramic chicken.

1. Morning starts to late these days that I get to watch the sun coming up over the chimney pots of Warwick Park. 2. I challenge Oli about the fact that his presents to both He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named and me included water pistols. He laughs. 3. A previously sterile and echoey pub is turned into an Arabian palace with low brass tables, pierced metal lanterns and huge cushions.

1. Some council men are messing around on the corner. One of them is the sort of person who reacts to cold by bouncing around. He feints and dodges at a colleague. 'Leave me alone. Go and annoy that young lady.' The bouncing man says with a huge grin: 'She's too pretty.' 2. Oli comes to the door with a just-woken-up Elodie in his arms. I thank her for surprise presents yesterday. She breaks out a huge smile, so I'm thinking she must understand. 3. Getting into bed when I am still warm from a shower.

1. My brother phones to talk about Christmas presents. I tell him I want a kitchen time -- 'You know, like Mrs Hollins had?' Mrs Hollins was our nursery school teacher, twenty-five years ago. It felt good to describe something like that, and not have to explain it. 2. Baby Elodie comes to visit, wearing a very silly red hat, bringing us stockings stuffed with tiny presents. She dribbles on us all 3. In a crisis, people who do what needs to be done without asking questions. And later, getting the 'all clear' text message.

To everyone who might expect a Christmas card from me: I'm not doing it this year. I've given the money to Magic Breakfast instead, as suggested by Susan Hill . 1. I am doing housework and there is a man who is all my own getting under my feet. 2. My hands are sore because I made pastry for mince pies yesterday. 3. Washing up my best glasses so that they sparkle.

1a. I am chatting to the girl who is washing my hair. It turns out that she doesn't want to be a hairdresser -- 'I want to work with special needs children.' I say that this is a very worthwhile career; and wish that being a writer had the same usefulness to society. She pauses and then says: 'Well I couldn't live without my books. That's usefulness.' 1b. When I ask to tip my hairdresser, in her drawer are a few coins and a USB stick. In the drawer belonging to the hairwash girl, there is a packet of chewing gum. 1. Five bunches of daffodils for £2. 'It's because they're open,' says the flower boy. 2. A respectable middle-aged couple hurry up the hill carrying a Christmas tree between them. 3. I describe the vaguely-remembered work of a steam-punkesque scientist to Nick. He knows exactly who I mean. I feel as if I have met some sort of soulmate.

1. Emily is wearing a Christmassy red jacket and green jumper. 2. We crowd to the window to watch the shoot. A wire-haired dacshund races around nearly expiring with excitement. Earlier this week, it came to greet Oli and me as we went into work. It was wearing a coat, and seemed very pleased to see us, wriggling right down on the ground and wagging its tail. 3. Printing my own wrapping paper with a large rubber stamp.

A set of beautiful things arrived on a bright postcard from Fenella and Andy: 1. Enjoying a Singapore Sling in Raffles, admiring the fan mechanisms , throwing monkey nuts to the floor and noting how little the long bar has changed since colonial times. 2. Swimming in one of the world's top 50 swimming pools overlooking green padi fields and lush palm vegetation with dragon flies overhead and monkeys swining in the trees. 3. Massages; the Balinese style involves not just two hands but four - kneading and stroking away all worries and knots to leave you relaxed; smelling like a coconut and with enough change for another one tomorrow. Honourary fourth mention of Andy's beloved rice cooker which is currently enjoying a tour of Indonesia. 1. The gravel drive is solid with frost. 2. When I come to put the news together, I notice that I have given Oli a lot of rubbish stories. I feel a bit guilty for not checking the list properly, but don't say anything. As we are leaving, he com...

1. A few pine needles on the stairs suggest that upstairs have their Christmas tree. 2. Every leaf has a careful edging of frost. 3. Most evenings when I get home, I catch a clean baby smell coming up from the garden flat.

This is what my small brother is doing -- he's exploring Greenland. 1. We added pomegranete juice to our fizzy wine and wondered at the colour of it. 2. A dish of flying saucers in pink and green and orange and blue. 3. Jules dares me to see how long I can go just wearing pyjamas. It's tempting, but Katie is unimpressed.

1. We wake to find a house fairy has left a tray of tea things outside my bedroom door. 2. The car in front of us is run into by someone coming out of a side road. Oli comments that life is made up of a million misfortunes that one avoids because they happen to other people. Later I remember this while reading The Pinhoe Egg . Characters fall victim to a 'nudge' spell, which makes accidents more likely to happen than they are to almost happen. 3. On a cold night, turning up the heating and pulling a dressing gown around me.

1. A large cup of coffee brought just as I am waking up. 2. Heroic saga. 3D glasses. Need I say more about Beowulf ? 3. My aunt presses a small packet of sweets 'for the journey' into my hand as I leave.

1. A hot Cornish pastie and cup of tea on a very wet day. 2. We stand in front of a painting at the Tate Modern. It looks as if someone has thrown green and orange paint at a canvas and smeared it around. My aunt says: 'Does this remind you of something?' I nod slowly and say: 'Yes. Monet's waterlilies .' 'Me too.' But we don't know why. 3. My aunt teaches me crochet -- I 'discover' several 'new stitches' before I get it right.

1. Wheeling my suitcase down to the station because I'm going away for the weekend. 2. My cousins' particular brand of creativity that covers the kitchen in models of wrinkly tree-stump dwelling creatures with fat bellies and long toes; and allows them to appreciate the photo of me and Rosey in which I am trying to look beautiful and Rosey is cross-eyed. We spend dinner defending the fantasy corner against people who think making up words and worlds is silly. 3. Hearing my aunt up-dating a former colleague about their patients. Some of them now have grandchildren.

1. A winter flowering cherry shaking a scatter of brave and generous blossoms in the December chill. 2. Tomorrow, it is two weeks til I leave this job. We are starting to realise what this will mean. I feel like crying when He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named looks up from his work and says: 'I know you're laughing because of the way you coughed.' 3. All the sweet and silly things Nick and I tell each other about the four days we've been apart.

1. A large and brightly coloured box wrapped in a pink organza ribbon arrives at work. It contains: Soor plooms Raspberries and blackberries Colour changing popping candy Lemon crystals Bassetti Apple crumble fudge Treacle bangers Twin cherries Stockleys fruit rock Strawberry sherbert Cherry cola bottles A pleasant stickiness overcomes the office, and people pop in and out all day to nibble at their favourites. 2. I am about to ask for my usual evening beauty appointment, when I remember that as I am about to take three months off, I can book a slot at half past ten on a weekday morning if I like. 3. I get home to find Katie and Jules surrounded by bags of Christmas shopping.

1. My aunt texts to say that the mysterious parcel I warned her about has arrived on her doorstep. Can she open it? Will it bite? I tell her yes, but only if she's careful. 2. I love Fair Play by Tove Jansson. It's a novel about two lady artists whose lives are tightly twined. They have problems and they resolve them in short, gentle chapters. 3. I come home from writing to find Katie has made stirfry with tonnes of crunchy vegetables dressed in honey and soy sauce with oily noodles.

Check out Steve Stack and Scott Pack discussing It Is Just You, Everything's Not Shit on Scott's blog . Some interesting comments about avoiding tweeness when writing about beautiful things, and how it's harder to be funny about good things than it is about bad things. 1. A lady whose house is on the edge of the park calling her cat in. She bangs a spoon on the railings and in between each call, her other cat calls too: 'Puss!' 'Miaou!' 'Puss' 'Miaou!' 'Puss!' 'Miaou!' 2. Amanda brings a fat and fruit-filled pannetone to the writing class, and we eat it to celebrate the end of term. 3. Walking up the hill late at night I catch sight of the hind quarters of a familiar dog going round a corner. By the time I reach the top of the hill, he and whoever he was walking with have gone.

1. Buying something from the supermarket basics range and finding that it's rather good. 2. Katie is practising along with a recording of Handel's Messiah . I swear there is this one bit where they sing: 'We like cheese.' She is not amused when I point this out. Later, Emma confirms that the words are 'We like sheep', which is nearly as funny. 3. A concert in the Royal Albert Hall where the singers far outnumbered the audience. I loved the way the different parts called to each other across the hall. I've only ever heard Messiah sung by a small choir in a church -- this was a very different experience, and I could almost feel the force of the sound.

1. I take a walk down the King's Road in London and find a farmers market in full swing. Among the cheese, fish, bread and dried fruit, I find a stall selling cupcakes with fascinating sprinkles. The couple in front of me are told not to worry about exact change, but the man says: 'This is a business,' as he scrabbles for coins. He turns to me and says: 'You've got to watch these two.' 'See you later, Dad,' says the stallholder. The cakes are a huge hit at the drinks party I am attending. 'This sparkly one,' says Grace, 'I think it's topped with gold and real rubies.' Elaine takes photos of the cakes in the box and on the plate. Later, 'Look at the dinosaur sprinkles. You can name them. T. Rex, pleisiosaur...' 'I thought you meant like James and Ian.' 2. Walking into Habitat. I have suffered a certain sadness since they closed the Tunbridge Wells branch of Habitat . I used to love walking round imagining what I would...

1. On a vile night being driven all the way from work to where I want to go when I was expecting to have to arrive soaking wet. 2. The gap in the conversation during eating. 3. Being taken on an adventure that someone else is generating in reaction to my choices.

1. Working down a list of things I need to do. 2. Coming out of the office into the rainwashed darkness and smelling clean winter air. 3. I beat Andy at backgammon -- it's not a particularly convincing victory as we are racing at the end to get our counters off the board, but it is a satisfaction none the less.

1. Talking to Elodie -- expressions flit across her face as if she is practising, and sometimes its hard to tell if she's pleased or not. 2. Getting some wise advice from Caroline. Oli says that she is like the fixer in Pulp Fiction. 3. I arrive at Nick's cold, damp and hungry. He says: 'Shall I rub you with a towel?'

1. Some left-over wedding bubbles have appeared at work, so the office periodically fills with soap bubbles. 2. The pharmacist asks me a few questions to check that I've understood my GP's instructions. 'So you're winding down, are you?' he says, seeing that my dose has been reduced to every other day. 'That's good news. Well done.' 3. I like it when the writing class gets the giggles -- this week it was because of Sarah's stories about a mischievous writing trip Venice.

1. Getting off work an hour early and being driven all the way into town when there was an amazing sunset. 2. A very small girl stands on one side of the bus stop glass; her mother is sitting on the other. They are playing a game in which the girl has to put her hands where her mother's hands are. They are both giggling. 3. I leave for writing a bit early so Katie and I can go and inspect the Hooper's window . We work along the story of Sleeping Beauty as represented using shop dummies and costumes from the National Ballet. We guess which characters are which, and discuss which dresses we like best (my favourite is a grey tutu, but the White Cat's fur striped frock comes a close second). In the wedding scene, the story says that Red Ridinghood is among the guests. 'Where is she?' wonders Katie. A passerby points her out, standing in the corner with her wolf nearby.

1. A belly comfortably full of breakfast. 2. A phone call from my mother to say that she and Daddy are safely back from their holiday and have had a magical time. She gossips about other members of the group and listens to my woes and describes the things she has seen and gives me some advice. 3. Nick and I have our favourite restaurant all to ourselves. It has wood-fired pizza oven, and Nick says that next time, I must sit facing the kitchen so I can see it, rather than having to watch the flames reflected in the window.

1. My guests are late, which means I get a little extra time cuddling Nick on the sofa. 2. Cat takes a no hurry attitude with her children. There is no rush to get up the stairs, so Ellie can climb by herself without being carried. 3. Although she is not yet two, Ellie recognises letters, even in an unfamiliar font. Cat has taught her using people's names and a cushion embroidered with the alphabet. A shopping bag suddenly becomes a family album, as Ellie shouts out the names. 4. Nick and I are caught Alan admiring the baby who has been left lying on the sofa for a moment. 'You're communing with Daniel,' says Alan, seeing that Daniel has one of our fingers in each of his fists. 5. Cat excuses herself to feed a fussy Daniel in my room 'The bed might be a more familiar set-up'. When I go in to check she is all right, she has snuggled herself under the covers, and is looking at my slightly disordered quarters with the sort of new-eye attitude that I ought to use al...

1. Finding one last Double Decker in the sandwich lady's chocolate basket. 2. Wrapping a blanket round my legs while I watch television. 3. Mashed swede with plenty of butter and pepper.

1. A girls only day at work which allows us to discuss the men and have the heating on as much as we like. 2. A small and determined-looking year 7 girl sits at the front of the bus. When the time comes for her to get off, she is joined by a boy about twice her height who has been sitting at the back of the bus. They look very alike, so I guess they must be siblings. I think she must wonder when her brother got so tall. 3. Katie brings home bags and boxes from John Lewis. She has been shopping for Christmas decorations in red and gold.

I've been posting on Your Messages -- each day you have the chance to win a place in an anthology by writing 300 words. 1. What I have always thought of as a clogged ditch has swollen into a stream after the rain. 2. The call to dinner -- a pan of spicy red sauce in which two chicken thighs have been cooking. 3. I catch sight of the faint white line under my eye from where I cut my face open in Africa. I remember never being worried that it might be disfiguring -- even when I looked in the mirror and saw the wounds hanging open. Even when I woke up the next morning in hospital and really thought about what I had done. I think this was partly because at uni I had a housemate with a scar. When Ali was cold or excited, a scar as long as my middle finger showed up red on her cheek from where, aged 11, she had fallen through a window. She was beautiful and confident and men came up to her and wanted to know about the scar. It was never seen as an ugly thing, or something to be ashamed ...

1. A crowd of school boys rushes to get on the bus. The driver, like a lion tamer, shouts 'One at a time. ONE at a time. You, get to the back.' 2. The man in the chippie tells me he is from the Medway towns, 'where kids treat you like you're nothing when you work in a food shop. Here they called me "Sir" and said "Thank you".' 3. Nick at I watched a documentary about Albert Khan , an early French photographer and cinematographer. His colour photos are Edwardian, but look surprisingly modern, apart from details like horse-drawn vehicles and roads clear of cars. The colours, achieved using grains of starch dyed red, blue and green on glass plates, are astonishing.

Congratulations to Rashmi over at Life ain't that Bad -- it's her first anniversary of finding beautiful things. 1. Taking my gloves off the radiator and putting them on my cold hands. 2. My boss's (and everyone else's, actually) excitement at his new iPhone. It went round the office and we were all allowed to have a go at typing in messages and looking at his pictures. 3. A mug of hot soup at lunchtime.

1. A couple of weeks ago, I admired to glass peacock Christmas decorations in a shop. But I wasn't going straight home, so I didn't dare buy them for fear they would get broken. When I visited the Czech Republic a few years back, I bought several similar decorations, but reached home with several packets of glass shards. Today, I go into the shop and they are still there, so I buy them both and bear them home safely wrapped in tissue paper. 2. Nick takes me to a sale of military books in a hotel, bribing me with the promise of tea. While he searches for bargins in two green boxes, I perch on the windowseat and admire the grounds. I can see in through the window of another wing of the hotel, where a pair of hands is carefully laying a tea table with a white cloth and crisp napkins. I imagine it might be ours. When the time comes, we go back to the lounge and are led to that very table. 3. Halfway through tea, a lady in a primrose yellow frock with many layers of net and a very s...

1. Walking across the Grove, a tennis ball rolls over my toes. I almost trip over the black and white dog chasing it, and then the owner just misses running into me. We laugh about it -- how very English. 2. An oldish woman, perfectly coiffed and dressed, stands outside Hoopers. She is wearing startling glossy red lipstick. I imagine she must be a fairy godmother. 3. Gnawing sweetcorn off the cob.

1. There are two pigeons on the roof of Oli's garage. They are taking advantage of the sun and casting their shadows in surprising places. 2. Choosing a slice of cake from the sandwich van -- they are laid out in boxes wrapped in cellophane and have icing in appetising colours. Some of them are decorated with cherries, coconut or peel. 3. The smell of thyme and rosemary baking with my supper of chicken and mushrooms in a white wine gravy.

I have been playing catch-up -- here , and here . Sorry for the gaps in service -- I'm blaming technical difficulties. 1. By way of celebration, I put sugar on my Rice Krispies. It sits on the top, soaking up the milk while I carry my breakfast into the office, and at the bottom of the bowl, there is a comforting sweet sludge of milk and sugar. 2. Oli gives me half his muffin, leading to some minutes of bawdy jokes. 3. A bath, a large glass of gin and tonic and a new science fiction magazine.

1. On a cold day, wrapping up in layers: a petticoat, thick chocolate brown tights, a pink vest, an aubergine-coloured top, a thick cord skirt in deep plum, a long chocolate brown woollen coat, socks and a pair of brown lace-up boots and an overcoat. 2. Sliding a heavy red pot of stew into the oven. 3. As I leave, Katie tells me to take the longer, safer route because it's dark and cold.

1. In the morning I think I've slept very late and imagine that Rose must be working downstairs. But she's still in bed asleep, so I crawl in with her, and we lie in until nearly 10am. 2. Three mothers with babies sit at a table near us. I think I recognise one of the mothers -- perhaps I went to school with her. We smile at each other, but don't speak. I admire the way the mothers chat and eat and drink with their babies on their arms. 3. My grandmother's sitting room is warm and small, full of photographs and portraits of my family. Thick curtains shut out November, and thoughts of the crossword shut out our problems. I doze in my wingbacked chair, my tea cooling at my side.

1. Standing at a lonely country bus stop and seeing the headlights and destination board of my bus coming round the corner. 2. The school kids behind me on the bus: 'I know him from Ticehurst Primary School.' 'You never.' 'I do. I went in year two.' 'You never. You went to Stone Cross.' 'I did, in year two.' 'You liar.' 'I can't believe you didn't know that, you rubbish girlfriend.' 'I'm a fucking good girlfriend.' 3. I tell Robert what Rosey and I had for supper and he says: 'I wanted that, too.'

This is a public information message from Steve Stack, author of It is Just You, Everything's Not Shit. I recently started a blog and wrote a book with the somewhat less than beautiful title It Is Just You, Everything's Not Shit but lots of beautiful things have happened as a result. Here are three of them: 1. Meeting Oliver Postgate, the creator of Bagpuss, Clangers and Ivor the Engine. Still going strong in his eighties, he was one hero that did not disappoint in the flesh. 2. Receiving a wooden chest of sweets from the lovely people at ww.aquarterof.com . It was like opening a gateway to my childhood - flying saucers, sherbet pips, space dust and bucketloads more. 3. Hearing from lost friends who have stumbled across the book in shops and emailed me. Some very welcome blasts from the past. The book is available from Waterstones and Amazon or from It Is Just You, Everything's Not Shit . 1. Sitting in bed with Nick and the Sunday papers. 2. Finding a secret gar...

1. On the breakfast bar, a piece of golden honeycomb is flanked by two silver knives. 2. Standing on a jetty watching carp kiss the water below us. 3. Tucked between the pages of my new Moomin book, I find again the gift tag that Nick up on the wrapping. 4. The view of the grey hotel among autumn trees on the other side of the valley. 5. Slices of tender, pink venison surrounded by a chilli-chocolate sauce. 6. Coming back to our room after dinner and finding that bed that was rumpled from our afternoon nap has been made and turned down; and the towels and bathrobes that we left strewn around the room have been carefully hung up.

1. Sitting at work looking forward to a weekend of giving Nick my undivided attention. 2. As we turn into the drive of the hotel, a shaft of sunlight shines through a beech tree in full autumn glory. 3. We are shown to our tea table, which is covered in a white cloth. It's by the fire, and there's a large and soft sofa waiting for us. 4. Chatting to Nick while I wash my hair. I love the way he enjoys something as simple as me taking a bath or putting on a pair of tights.

The wonderful Nick is taking me away for a few days of afternoon teas, very large baths, huge dinners and massages. Normal service will resume after we get back. On Monday, I'm hosting a leg of the It is just you, everything's not shit tour. 1. The sound of sheep munching. 2. A mole hill that is still fresh. 3. Towards the end of the day, a sudden storm lashes the windows. At first, after so many crisp sunny days, we are confused by the sound.

1. Char offers to make me a hot chocolate when things get bad. 2. Sitting in the cinema with salty popcorn and a small bag of sour jelly sweets. 3. A film involving cross-dressing sky pirates, a fallen star, a rapidly aging witch, a innkeeper who used to be a goat, a wall between England and fairy land, seven murderous brothers, a market where you can buy tiny elephants and a captive princess. Stardust needs to be seen.

1. More leaf shuffling. Oli and I walk into work along the lane. I tell him that part of the pleasure of walking in leaves is thinking that someone might tell you off. So we shout at each other to stop messing around. 2. Plump ginger biscuits with drizzled stripes of hard caramel. 3. I am cold, and remember I have a fleece dressing gown.

1. Large and succulent glace cherries in a muffin. 2. Shuffling leaves at the side of the road and feeling as if I might be told off for making a mess, but enjoying the sound too much to stop. 3. For weeks I've been struggling to 'get' a character's voice in my radio play. Each time I offer him up to the class, heads are shaken. But yesterday, it was decided that he had arrived aboard the ship. It's a relief -- and I know I can do this again the next time I run into the same problem.

1. Nick trying to catch falling leaves in the park. 2. The sunset pours golden light between rooftops and chimneys. 3. Wearing a new hat, scarf and gloves that match.

1. My coffee comes decorated with a star in chocolate powder. The lady who asked if she could share my table has a heart on her coffee. 2. A loud, old-fashioned mobile phone rings. 'I'm in a cafe in Tunbridge Wells,' explains an elderly lady. 'Eating,' she replies after a pause. Then, with some irritation: 'My appointment was in Tunbridge Wells... I got the bus.' I imagine that the caller is a daughter-in-law who feels guilty about not giving Granny a lift to her appointment. 3. The colour of raw carrots.

1. A large box full of clothes arrives in the post. 2. Douglas uses a radio comedy to prove that all gingers are descended from angels. 3. The prospect of spending the greater part of the weekend alone.

1. I find a cardboard skeleton in my wardrobe, a little pile of stretchy worms in the kitchen, a plastic skeleton tied to the door handle, and a witch's broom in the sitting room. 2. Ed turns up a video of me twirling round in my fairy costume. It induces near hysteria in the office. 3. Listening to knowledgeable and passionate people talking about food

So sorry for the missing three days. I've been feeling a bit... quiet. 1. Coming home to a house with somebody home. Katie has arrived early so she can start work on the Halloween party. I also liked seeing the signs that other people are celebrating, too -- children out in costume, and pumpkin lanterns in windows. 2. Whirling round and round to make my tutu puff out until I am too giddy to go on. 3. A large bowl full of sweeties and the sound of people talking. See the pictures here .

1. The road to work was blocked by an accident, and my bus took me via random villages to a place about two miles from my stop... but He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named came to the rescue, and the autumn leaves we passed were very yellow and orange against the sky. Later, Neil points out how joyous it is to be late for work When It's Not Your Fault. 2. A wonderful lamp in a sphere of glass crystals. 3. I come home to find an industrious Jules hollowing out pumpkins. Katie points out that he has 'found the pick 'n' mix' that we bought for any trick or treaters.

1. Small tasks that have a beginning, a middle and an end. 2. I see a long creature chasing a cyclist and at first I think it's a squirrel. It's a dachsund puppy out for a walk with a mother and two sons. It plays in the fallen leaves, savaging any that look as if they might step out of line. 3. Creating a character for a Hollow Earth Expedition, discovering what she's good at and what her talents are and trying to play the game as if I were her.

1. The red covers have gone back on the sofas, and the room looks so warm and inviting. No grey weather can get in now. 2. A table laid for supper with shining glasses and cutlery. 3. In the night, I feel with my feet my ballet shoes which are hanging from the end of the bed, tied with their ribbons.

1. I did a term of ballet when I was very tiny, but I don't remember having the shoes bought for me. However, I need a pair of ballet shoes for my Halloween costume, so Katie and I went to the ballet shop to pick out a pair of suitable size eights. I feel as if an important memory has been restored. 2. Running into Nick in M&S and getting a small kiss by way of greeting. 3. Watching my Halloween costume take shape under Katie's sewing machine.

1. There's something in the air today that makes everyone snuff and say: 'Something's changed' and 'You can almost taste the moisture' and 'I love this time a year'. 2. I meet a real live writer for a drink. I was a bit in awe of her the first time we met, but she is so kind and encouraging that this time, I anticipate our drink with hardly any nervousness. And again, she is interesting and charming and passes on tips and shares a little gossip. See Sarah's other project here . 3. My bed is so warm and welcoming that as I get in, I giggle to myself in a way that reminds me of my goddaughter Ellie (nearly two) giggling when we played some game or other.

1. The smell that rises from two platters of fruit salad. On this grey almost November day, the colours seem wonderful and exotic. 2. I am reading while I wait. Through the story I hear the voice I am waiting for, and it pulls me back to the London street. 3. As we take our seats on the train, Nick lifts the armrest between us.

1. A window through which only sky is visible. Three birds fly past. 2. In the last few months I have been reminded of something important. After the not-a-badger incident I wailed to Chrissie 'I feel like such a girl' and she told me firmly 'But Clare, you are a girl'. And later, telling my woes to Oli, I am advised: 'To be honest, you wouldn't be a woman if you didn't feel like that.' I remember both these incidents, and wonder when in my life I lost my pride in this part of my identity. 3. I hear the front door go and then a shriek that indicates Katie has been 'got' by the same trick she played on me first thing in the morning.

1. Sheep with frost on their backs because it means no warmth is escaping through their fleeces. 2. A horse rolling on the ground. 3. Resting my feet on a hot radiator as I work.

1. Feeling warm from a walk on a cold day. 2. The sound archives of He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named. He has collected such gems as me saying 'Sheep and potatoes'; Oli apologising for phoning me late at night from Bratislava; Tricky Dicky selling printing services; Pip barking; Ellen wondering where a ladder is when you need one. 3. A shepherd's pie covered in expertly forked mash browning in the oven.

1. We visit a National Trust property that I have known since I was tiny. This year, the house has been opened up. Before, it could be glimpsed here and there, but now the evergreens have been cut down so that the mellow sandstone building is visible from surprising places, and the forbidden lawns are now accessible. 2. Dozing on the sofa leaning on Nick. 3. Finishing both packets of pills on the same day.

1. Katie comes back from Sainsbury's with a bag full of orange and black secrets for Halloween. 2. After expert teaching from Glamour Puss , I can now twirl nipple tassels. Another achievement ticked off the list. 3. We lost the rugby, but the South African team looked so happy to have won. I was impressed that Thabo Mbeki was there to celebrate with them.

1. A frosty morning with mist lying in hollows. 2. We celebrate Neil's birthday by sitting in the sun with a beer. 3. Bobby explains the awesome power of his new kitten. 'Girls come to see the kitten, not me.'

1. Getting my haircut and watching the strands fall to the floor. 2. Wrapping myself up in a new soft fleece dressing gown. 3. Nick and I are teaching ourselves to play go. We spend a little time doing some problems, working through them. Although the game is competitive, we are doing something as a team.

1. Sending 300 Beautiful Things off to the publisher. 2. My skein of hemp has tangled. But with some help from Katie, I follow the thread and wind it into a pleasing ball. 3. Sitting up in bed, a skein of yarn around my knees, listening to the shivery Book at Bedtime . It's Susan Hill's The Man in the Picture . I'm rather a fan of her ghost stories.

1. A new dress comes in the post. Its from a shop specifically stocked for women with curves, so it actually fits. When I look down and see the underbust band is actually under my bust and not across it, I'm so happy I almost cry. 2. Ice cream that comes in a cardboard box. 3. Completing a piece of work that has been hanging over me for the last few days.

1. Clicking my sewing into an embroidery hoop. 2. I have moved all my stuff out of my room so the decorator can work. I am not looking forward to moving it all back in again. When I get home from work, I find that Katie has done it already. 3. The pop when I bite into a chocolate.

In answer to some comments: Sprite: yes, I was at the thread and yarn show at Ally Pally -- my housemate had a stand there. Chrissie: I think of punctuation as breaths or pauses -- a comma is a short pause; a semicolon is longer; a colon is longer still; and a full stop is longest of all to mark the end of a thought. I use semicolons in lists, too, if the items are more than one word. I try to write as I would (like to) speak -- my lips probably move as I type! I think a lot about the rhythm of prose, which is probably why I scatter semi colons so generously. Sandy Kessler -- I think Blueridge Muse must have found the ideal place to live! 1. Walking through the park I pass the Turkish Oak. Its large leaves have nearly all come down and they cover the ground so thickly that the grass is not visible. A mother and two tinies are flinging handfuls of coppery leaves at each other and giggling hysterically. 2. On our way to breakfast I make Fenella walk up the steep street to the park so ...

1. Walking down a street I hear a wonderful voice singing inside one of the houses. I wonder if she's practising, or if she's singing as she dusts. A lady coming the other way catches my eye and smiles back at me. 2. Coming to Alexandra Palace and seeing on one side the shell of the palace's outer wall and on the other London spread out like a toy city. Once inside, I walk round the exhibition hall, dazed by all the stands. Something makes me look up and I take in the rose window at one end and the huge organ at the other. 3. A mouthful of someone else's pudding.

1. Going back to sleep because I don't feel well. 2. A radio play in which two people who have met only briefly in real life exchange love letters across the world and decide to get married. 3. Nick has learnt to play go so that he can teach me.

1. Finding this website. It's good to see that someone else is happy, and I particularly like this post about watching television sideways. 2. I help a user find a presentation on our site. She tells me how much she likes what we offer -- customer delight is very satisfying. 3. Making kittens chase something round and round and round until you're sure they're going to trip over their tail or fall over from dizziness -- but they never do. Nicky says this is because they have a leg at each corner.

1. A strange morning with yellow light shining through raindrops and mist against a dark grey sky. 2. A variety of autumn leaves -- a drift of orange beech leaves, stiff as if they had been beaten out of copper; scrolls of red and green sumac leaflets; and berry red leaves from a cherry tree. 3. Water drops on the bonnet of a car seem to have been carefully organised to make a diagonal pattern.

1. Slicing morsels from a peeled russett apple and eating them off the knife. 2. Playing a slick and atmospheric computer game. Nightmares: The Adventure comes in four parts. I liked the sinister voice-over and the concept of neutralising the fears of a small boy by doing good deeds. 3. We liked the bamboo forest fight in House of Flying Daggers so much that we watch it all over again.

1. The cup of tea that Katie brings me each morning in bed; and the cup of French press coffee brought to my desk each morning. I enjoy these drinks in themselves, for the taste and the warmth of the mug; but more important is the thought that someone has taken the trouble to make it for me. 2. On most mornings I pass tiny blonde twins hurrying to school with their mother. The girl is often lagging behind to pick something up from a hedge or to look at something important. She looks as if she might be a natural 3BTer, and we exchange understanding smiles. 3. Rosey rings -- she's waiting for a bus and I'm waiting for the printer to finish with my script. We chat about dreams and siblings and how people she hasn't seen for ages know what she's doing because it's mentioned in 3BT.

1. Watching pancakes cook -- I like the way the top changes colour and becomes slightly translucent; and I like to see a brown frill appearing at the edge. 2. Channel surfing and finding a Monty Python double bill. 3. Tidying up a little.

1. Seeing Millais' paintings in the flesh -- There some that were familiar from a Pre-Raphaelite craze that whirled through the sixth-form common room at school (The Bridesmaid, Christ in the House of his Parents, Ophelia). Others were old friends from my school history books (The Princes in the Tower, The Boyhood of Raleigh). Others seem to have squirmed into our culture and are as familiar as the BBC and Guardian (Bubbles) 2. We take a walk called ' Passport to Pimlico ' which weaves through wedding cake streets of white stucco houses and tantalises us with hints of views -- 'look down this street and see an Italianate water tower.' 'Look up here and see the Apollo theatre.' 'From here you can see three of Battersea Powerstations chimneys.' 3. Last week, when we planned this day out, I said I wanted to watch the film Passport to Pimlico and wondered idly where we could get hold a DVD. Then Nick discovers that it's on TV at a time that fits in...

1. I wake up and discover that we are holding hands. 2. Fuchsias -- in particular, the magical purple inner petals. It is a deep indigo that glows in such a way that I imagine it reflecting colours outside that my eyes pick up, but my brain can't register. 3. The ridge of the hill that runs parallel to the lane is still green, but with smudges and highlights of orange and russett.

1. Katie comes in to tell me something to which I am not really listening because I am writing. I catch that she is very happy with her life in general, particularly her boyfriend and her homelife. Later in the day, I realise that I had been thinking just the same thing as she brought my mug of tea into the early morning gloom of my bedroom. 2. Treading on a laurel berry for the wet crunch. 3. On my way home I see a man I once met at a party walking down the street with his nose in a book.

Gusarsayu -- I've written a response to your comment (I published it on your blog and on yesterday's post, too). Today's beautiful things are for you. 1. A telephone consultation with my GP -- instead of taking the morning off work, I take a three minute phone call. 2. The sound of a cock pheasant calling chock! chock! chock! at the far end of the field at the end of the day. 3. Scattering a few green salad leaves over a plate of tomatoes with sheep's cheese, olive oil and basil vinegar.

1. He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named brings me an interesting tea bag that he thinks I might like to try and a slip of newspaper about a computer game. 2. A normally slippery brick pavement is covered in a fine layer of sand. 3. I take a different route home. A lady who I normally pass on the footpath meets me at the corner, stops and says: 'You've come a different way, too!' We discuss the whys of this -- she because it's getting too dark for footpaths, me because roadworks were blocking my way.

1. Oli describes how his baby is 'a pootle and wokling with two little footles in two little bootles.' 2. I like hurrying through the park to my script writing class and seeing commuters coming the other way, hurrying towards their homes and families. 3. In the dark, a couple wrapped around each other peer into the window of an estate agent telling each other about their dream house.

1. Katie's bed has arrived after months of waiting. She is building it when I get home, carefully padding the joints with pieces of suede so that it doesn't squeak. When complete it is so high that our legs dangle when we sit on it and we feel like six-year-olds. I'm suffering slightly from bed envy because mine is not as lofty. 'But yours is prettier,' Katie says kindly. 2. Stand-up Josie Long explained that she hated her middle because she tended to collect fat there. Then she lifted up her top to reveal her midriff, on which she had written 'marvellous' and drawn a picture of the sea. 'Ocean in motion. I love this bit of the show.' 3. After each joke, Simon Amstell squints into the dark audience as if he is tasting our response.

1. Our new satellite card provides hour-long Tom and Jerry specials. I particularly enjoyed a surreal episode about a cartoon kit including 'one mean pussycat and a loveable little mouse'. And the episode in which Tom tries to design a better mousetrap. He is foiled when the blue print mouse warns Jerry about the plan and together they sabotage it. 2. Having Nick take dictated corrections to my manuscript while I lie in the bath. 3. Porco Rosso's lair -- it is a beach surrounded by high cliffs and apparently only accessable through a sea arch. On the beach is a chair and table shaded by an umbrella; a radio; a telephone; and a tent. His red seaplane is moored to a pontoon made from planks and floating barrels.

1. We spend much of the day making a list of words forbidden in usernames on our website. We need to break every tabboo, which causes hysterical laughter; and every so often, someone will come up with a new phrase which needs to be discussed before it can be added to the list. 2. Katie has had a bad day. But a martini, a shower and the prospect of a night out with Paul Elvis Chan cheer her up. 3. Mark B has asked that his lovely soft jumper be mentioned.

1. I come into the sitting room first thing and see that the lily which last night was a palid capsule shut tight has opened out into a pink and orange spotted star. 2. On hearing that Nick has decided to take me to see a one-woman production of Bacchae , Oli says: 'He's a cerebral guy, isn't he.' 3. Watching a single actress perform a conversation between two very different characters while eight feet off the stage on a rope.

1. Watching high clouds moving quickly south in a blue sky. 2. The scent of lavender wafting out of Katie's bedroom. Jules has been trying to warm himself up with a bubble bath. 3. Shaking up my pillows to keep them plump. PS: 3 BT is going to sponsor The Adventurists on their trip to Mongolia in a one litre car.

1. Our printer is delivered in a very large box. Like a bunch of toddlers, we are more excited by the box than by the printer. He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named films and photographs each of us hiding in it. 2. When a rainstorm finishes at around sunset, the light takes on a hard, yellow quality. 3. A film at which people laugh out loud. We saw Molière at Trinity . It's a costume drama with farcical elements -- a lover disguised as a priest; a foolish father with social aspirations; a predatory noble with money problems; a stubbornly stupid young couple. PS: There's a film about us in the trees at Where I am Working .

1. Oli brings Elodie to the door. She is wearing the blue bamboo wool boots that Katie knitted for her and is looking very contented as she snuggles against the dribble rag draped over Oli's shoulder. 2. Being splashed by a car when I am wearing waterproofs. 3. The words 'Do you want a chocolate pudding or a jelly?'

1. Waking up in the vast expanse of Nick's new sofa bed. I have to roll over to find him. 2. We breakfast outside at a coffee shop. We watch a girl little enough to still have baby hair swinging on the bike rails -- they are just the right height for her. 3. We meet James and Kim for lunch and a catch-up. Old news for us is new news for them, so I enjoy telling and hearing all the stories again.

1. Holding the very placid baby Daniel while his mother cuddled her other baby, my giggly goddaughter Ellie. 2. Holding the feisty and wriggly Rory and watching him suck on his bottle. 3. At the top of the hill is a bench. There are three teenage girls sitting on it, and two sitting in front of it. They are surrounded by bottles and bags. 'So we're gonna meet them there. They're not going to the meal.' 'Can we skip the meal too?' 'Yeah, let's.' 'Can we eat something cheap?'

Work took us to a treetop adventure at Go Ape . 1. Feeling excited about something, but not feeling sick. I took courage from the fact that Fenella, who is scared of heights, had done it and enjoyed it. The first real course was terrifying and left me wondering if I could bear to do the rest. But the second course saw me sauntering across a single log 30 feet up in the canopy, and suddenly I felt a lot better about it all. 2. I liked seeing flashes of the others ahead of us on the course and hearing them whoop and shriek and cheer and encourage. I loved seeing Oli and Doug romping across obstacles; and hearing Hilary checking that Emma and Charlotte were properly attached. 3. Going down the last zip wire and seeing all my colleagues waiting at the far end, Doug standing on the fence, Charlotte brushing the wood chips off herself, He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named with his camera in hand.

1. Katie says banana bread is not cake, which means she can have it for breakfast. 2. Ellie drops me off just as the bus comes round the corner. I jump up and down and wave and the driver waves back, slows and pulls out of the traffic and into the bus stop so I can race across the road and thank him as I board. 3. Fenella brings five bubblegum pink gerberas.

1. Watching ants at work in the ant farm of He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named. 2. A pan of pink bubble and squeak -- we made it with red cabbage. 3. Watching my banana bread rising in the oven.

1. Coming home from work to find Nick waiting for me. 2. There is no longer a hole in my ceiling because the plasterer has filled it in. 3. Throwing a pill into a full dishwasher and setting it off.

1. Buttery toast and marmite. 2. The sofa bed has arrived and is filling Nick's living room with its cloudlike sofa-ness. We pull out the bed and lie on top of the plastic wrapper to try it out. There is so much space. 3. One of the things I love about being an adult is that I can arrive late for classes and no-one shouts at me like they would have at school. I know it's a bad and disruptive thing to do, but it was a genuine mistake this time and I won't do it again.

Lauren Bergold writes more about her 3BT experience -- check out the pictures of the journal she made to keep her beautiful things in. 1. A large square box containing a bowler hat and a top hat. My father says as we bring them down from the attic: 'I don't know what your grandfather would think of you using his hats for a burlesque course.' 2. A phone call from Cat in which I can hear Ellie in the background saying 'Clare'. I also hear Daniel noises. 3 . Curling up with Italo Calvino's Castle of Crossed Destinies and comparing the stories to the tarot spread.

1. On the bus a little girl in a pushchair talks to her grandfather about their fingers and thumbs, his watch and whether or not he has a fat tummy. 2. A dish containing shank of lamb, sticky dark gravy and creamed potatoes. 3. Walking in the dark and seeing a skyful of stars.

1. The bunches of gladioli that I bought on Thursday as tightly furled buds have opened into velvety purple flowers. 2. Oli leaning into Elodie's car seat to quiet her with some white noise shhhhing. 3. Filling someone's glass with red wine.

1. This story about a US town that buried a car to celebrate its 50th anniversary. It was dug up for the 100th anniversary. The intention is to present it to heirs of the 'lucky' person who correctly guessed the population of the town in 2007. Thanks to Paleo-Future for writing it up. 2. Neopolitan icecream -- the sort that comes in tubs with a stripe of pink, white and brown. 3. A tray of brownies in the oven.

1. Picking blackberries and feeling the sun warm on my back. 2. Checking the menu of a restaurant about to open and imagining meals yet to be eaten. 3. It must be frustrating for Katie watching me work on the book. I spend a lot of time playing computer games, lying on the sofa, not doing any housework, laying out slips of paper with beautiful things written on them and dozing. She neither comments that slightly more time editing would be helpful; nor wonders why I don't spend some of the not-writing time doing housework. But the second guidance is asked for, she -- and Rosey -- come out with exactly what I need to hear.

1. Dried cranberries because of their glowing shade of red. 2. A shaft of sunlight falls down behind my desk and warms my legs as I work. 3. The film Ten Canoes .

1. Sitting in a pub with a pint of beer and my notebook. 2. Walking down our street and seeing the afternoon sun shining into our living room and on to the newly-decorated green walls. 3. Getting my lap top back from the menders.

Nick and I spent yesterday visiting buildings in the Heritage Open Day . 1. Reading that St Augustine's church was once described as a 'tent' and that it helps worshippers recall the nomadic roots of their religion. It's a low modern building laid out in a square -- the congregation must feel very involved with the services. Nick thought its high rafters made it like a Medieval hall. The guide who greeted us said that when the church was first opened in 1974, she didn't get on very well with the modern architecture, but it has grown on her. 2. The stained glass window at the back of the stage in Trinity Arts Centre . Trinity is a converted church and the window is normally hidden by a curtain. 3. Going upstairs in the Opera House. It's been a pub since I moved to Tunbridge Wells. Before that, it was a bingo hall, and before that a cinema, and before it was a theatre. The dress circle has recently restored red tip-up seats. But I didn't know there was an u...

1. I turn down breakfast in favour of an extra fifteen minutes of having sweet nothings whispered in my ear. 2. He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named has ants to put in his ant farm. We gave him the tank full of blue goo for his birthday, but the ants had to be ordered separately. He puts them in, and we spend the day checking to see if they've started burrowing yet. 3. I am what my boss calls 'demob happy' because it's the end of Friday and I have a whole week off.

1. Here's a presentation given by Erin McKean . Watching it made me remember what a beautiful thing she is. 1a. Erin's dress. Reading Erin's Dress A Day made clothes a pleasure for me. Her philosophy made me brave enough to buy, accessorise and wear dresses. 1b. The idea of letting the writers, rather than dictionary editors, decide what words can be used. 2. Meeting my mother for coffee. 3. I think I'm not hungry, but when the food comes, I am.

1. He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named brings me a mug of hot chocolate with a spiral of creamy froth revolving on the top. 2. Hearing that Goddaughter Ellie has a new brother -- who weighed 8lb 12oz. Well done Cat and Alan. 3. Nick and I watch a documentary that shows a statue of Buddha surrounded by adoring worshippers covered in coloured powder and milk.

1. Generating anagrams of names -- He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named is Brad Hygienic Drew. It sounds like a cowboy with OCD. 2. Teenagers chasing a squirrel. 'We'll never have to crack nuts for ourselves again.' 3. Settling into bed and leaving all the day's problem's behind.

1. Very large wood pigeons going about their business in the park. They look like Victorians with their dignified, contented stoutness and high white collars. 2. Clasping a warm, paper-wrapped bag of chips to my chest. 3. Burning some incense -- I'd forgotten how much I enjoy the sparks going across the charcoal and sniffing my resins to see which I'm going to use.

1. A cup of tea makes the chilly morning wait for my lift more bearable. 2. Housemates who notice when I forget my key and make sensible arrangements. 3.A thread card loaded with DMC stranded cotton, ready for me to start a new cross stitch.