Success!

The new Benilyn worked a treat. I went to bed and didn't cough once. I'm make it up for it now I'm up and about, though. Think I'd better go out and buy the daytime version. I have a bottle of Echinacea somewhere, so I shall take the drops as recommended by Perovskia, too.

There's a grey blanket of cloud over London and the rain is incessant and - well, you know how some rain seems wetter than other types? This is the kind of rain that gets everywhere. Down your neck, inside your bag, sliding into your shoes and making your socks soggy. It's the kind of rain we would wake up to on childhood holidays in Scotland or Wales, only to hear Dad say, 'It's not so bad. Come on, you lot, get your macs on!"

And out we would slosh in our wellies, up the hills where the view was blotted out by cloud, and down the valleys where the air was thick and sensual with the smells of soaked undergrowth and flowers and bushes gave off the reek of wet dog fur, offensive yet comforting at the same time. Up where my sister lives in Cumbria, they've actually got a hosepipe ban. Imagine that. Cumbria, land of floods and they can't water their gardens. Yet usually Ullswater is gently sloshing against my sister's back door. This cloudy, wet weather means I have missed out on the meteor shower. I really wanted to see it. Has anyone else managed to catch a glimpse of it?