Monday 26th June 2011

The Multis are underway for the Tate Summer Party. See graph below.

But I am at home. It’s been absolutely wracking. You know those pearl grey slacks with metal in them by Niccolo Ceschi Berrini that won’t stay up properly and scratch my intimate thigh? Well, I’ve actually had a similar pair in grey bought in Rome in April – not by a known designer. But I’ve thought them rather casual, being entirely cotton, no metal or anything exceptional, and they’ve sat in a pile waiting to have the bottoms turned up for wear these two months. This morning in this belting heat I thought I’d better seize the chance to prance in them. So I sat, boiling, stitching away, got them turned up, put them on, was thrilled by the fit and saw that they could replace the troublesome metal pair,so, elated,  prepared to leave the house with just some watering to do first. In the garden I knew there are lilies, was on acute pollen alert (it’s the worst stainer of all) but had not reckoned on a low-lying stamen. Within five minutes the superb pearl grey slacks were besplattered with crimson powder and in the deepest crisis.

Just now they’re in laundry (as you might say, ‘She’s in theatre, having her brain drained.’)

Then, at tea, in my Prada stone slacks, wrenched into this morning after the pollen ( if you remember they were planned for the Bath wedding but were shouted down by objectors and replaced at the last minute by the grey metal ones) … you won’t believe this… my tea-pot lid’s always had a will of its own but not usually until the third cup. Today it fell out early, crashed into the cup and bombed tea … I can hardly bring myself to write it…bombed tea ..all over my Prada stone slacks.