I had things to do today, things that I really should have done a bit sooner but which I hadn't had time to do. And today I didn't really do them properly - I knew I was just going to do them badly so I distracted myself with other stuff: buying an inappropriately young hoodie; playing Tumbling Monkeys with my niece; eating donuts; chatting up strangers; frowning at iTunes. So a busy day then!

And now it's time to get ready to go out to dinner. It's not really a hoodie kind of place so I think I may dig out a nice shirt. And a shave would be good. Have a good evening!

I'm on holiday!

A whole week off, the first since I don't know when. Possibly Glastonbury 2007. Which is too long! Half of my problems at work are because I don't really do holidays in the traditional way so I never get an extended break from it all. Of course the other half of the problem is that the people I work with are c*nts, but I'm too mellowed out on PopTarts to rant about that now. Lucky escape people!

Let's celebrate holidays really literally, with Madonna singing Holiday:

I may have cancelled my membership to all the gay 'dating' sites I used to use but that doesn't mean there have been no men.

Tonight I had a gentleman caller, not a new one obviously but one from my 'repertoire'. You know the score - he's coupled and cheating on his boyfriend, same old same old! They've got a plumber in at the moment and rather than let the plumber think they're a gay couple one of them is pretending he's a lodger - what kind of madness is that, paying someone to work in your own home and pretending you're someone you're not?! Gay pride!

After he left I settled down to a night of TV. All the good stuff is on tonight so I'm glued to the sofa. At the moment I'm watching Gossip Girl although I wonder if I might be over it...

October is turning out to be gig month: four weeks, four gigs - rock 'n' roll!

Things started last night with Noah & the Whale in Cambridge. You should know them from a cheery little song they had out last summer called 5 Years Time which included whistling, clapping and women singing "fun, fun, fun, sun, sun, sun" - it was great for the first few listens then not.

The album it came from annoyed me because it felt overly perky, although it turns out I wasn't listening carefully enough as one of the songs is about throwing a baby into the snow so the wolves can have it. They had a new album out this summer all about the break-up between the lead singer and the lady who sang "fun, fun, fun etc" and they made a film to go with it which I saw at Latitude. The film was a bit cliched but the album sounded great. But when I listened to the album without the film it seemed less impressive so I went back to the first album which now sounds superb! Confusing isn't it.

So let's recap - the first album is perky, the second is glum, and lots of people had come to see them play their big hit - could have been a tricky gig, so it's just as well they're fantastic!

I'd got it into my head that they were going to play the second album in it's entirety from start to finish, but they didn't, they jumbled all there stuff together, which in reality meant they started with the perky bits then it all got a bit introspective and quiet before they finished with a great big rock-out in a folky kind of way.

There are five of them - a drummer, singer/guitarist, bass player with a blonde fringe that covers his face, violinist and guitarist/keyboard player. Without the female singers and horn players it's all a lot less poppy, darker, more dramatic and better suited to the lyrics. Some of the lyrics are so painfully honest it makes you wonder how the singer can stand to perform them and probably explains why the lights were so low.

It was a fantastic gig, they made guitars sound interesting instead of just loud, and it's so amazing to hear a man stand on stage and sing such truthful and vulnerable words. Go Noah!

And thanks to the wonder of mobile phones and youtube here's a song from last night:

Yesterday I'd agreed to take Mum shopping, which was the last thing my tired feet needed but it had to be done: my youngest niece has a birthday at the end of the month and Mum's birthday is a few days after that. My niece will be seven and is still fairly easy to buy for, Mum is a bit older than that and a lot more awkward but we ended up having a successful shopping trip, which was a huge relief!

I even started my Christmas shopping. I'm really sorry. There'd been talk of it within the family for a month but as the sun had been shining I'd resisted quite forcefully. Well now October is here and it's cold I no longer have that excuse. Besides, there are Christmas cards everywhere you look and it was just taking too much effort to keep ignoring it. And the sensible part of me realised that I've got a very busy diary between now and Christmas, including, rather fabulously, stays in three capital cities, so the sooner I make a start the better really.

Obviously it means I've dug out my trusty spreadsheet so I can keep track of my progress, and if you look a little bit to the left you'll see just how much Christmas shopping I've done. As the weeks progress this will increase, as will your resentment and annoyance, but isn't that what Christmas is all about? Ho ho ho.

Yesterday I was in London with Thom to see Talent by Victoria Wood. It was written in 1978 but has been revived at the lovely Menier Chocolate Factory and is directed by herself.

It's about a talent night in Manchester and is set backstage - there's a young girl who works in an office but wants to be a singer, who thinks she's glamorous and has brought her dumpy frumpy friend along for support; a comedy magician and his mate, who is standing in for his wife who is poorly but still singing somewhere else that night; an organ player who is married to another singer on the bill, who it turns out used to go out with the young girl; and a lecherous MC. It takes places over the course of the evening and includes songs.

The reviews hadn't been kind - the Guardian gave it 2 out of 5 and someone else gave it 1 out of 5. After that I stopped reading reviews because I feared it would spoil the show for me. What the reviewers failed to take into account was the huge love many people in this country feel for Victoria Wood, me included. It was a little dated but it was also very funny and very, very Victoria Wood, and people laughed the whole way through and loved it!

The cast included Mark Curry, who used to present Blue Peter and who apparently hasn't aged at all. And also Jeffrey Holland who was in Hi-de-Hi, so there was a bit of retro casting going on.

It was also the first time I had been in the Menier Chocolate Factory, which is a small theatre in what used to be a chocolate factory. There stuff always gets well reviewed and sells out instantly so I've only ever seen it when it transfers to bigger theatres. But it's a fabulously intimate space holding only 150 people so I'm going to get my act together and book quickly in future because I definitely want to go back!

The rest of the day was mostly spent walking, because really that is the only way to see London. And it's an excellent way of gossiping as well, and let's face it gossip is something we take seriously and do very, very well! I dread to think how far we walked - the last bit, from the theatre to Charing Cross Road turns out to be 2 miles! But earlier we'd walked from Paddington, via Knightsbridge and Belgravia to Victoria, taking about two hours - we must have walked miles! No wonder my feet and hips were ready to give up!

It was a lovely day, broken up with food and of course London was absolutely gorgeous! As were the people in it - now we know where all the handsome men from our areas have vanished to! Lovely to see you Thom! xxx

Unfortunately today I'd arranged to take my mother shopping, which right now sounds like the worst idea in the world!