Friday the 13th

I'm not terribly supersitious but I did have a 'quick quease' on the tube today, what with the warnings to be on one's guard in case of terrorist attacks. But I made it unscathed to Piaccadilly Circus, where I was booked in for a nice, cheap massage, thanks to one of those cheap deals that you buy coupons for (Groupon, kgb...).

To my surprise, a handsome young man, Alexis from Latvia, introduced himself as my massage therapist. I have to own up to a few fantasies as he was pummelling my thighs whilst breathing hard! But it was a great massage and, feeling rejuvenated, I skipped off to the Royal Academy where I was meeting a friend to go and view the exhibition of Watteau's drawings.

They were brilliant, but something else happened, too: whilst at the Information desk enquiring about membership, one of the staff, a lady of around my age with curly hair and glasses, kept staring at me. She said she knew me from somewhere and asked my name - and it turned out she was the wife of my old boss, for whom I had worked from 1974 to 1984!!! He is almost 80 now and she begged me to ring them and come round for tea, as he would be so pleased to see me. (What I couldn't tell her was how terrified of him I used to be. Wonder if I've got over it, or if his gimlet eyes will still reduce me to a gibbering wreck?)

We had lunch, my friends (another had joined us after her massage with the same hunk) gave me birthday presents as I hadn't seen them since February (a gorgeous bracelet, a couple of those 'one size fits all' rings as most of my gold and silver rings don't fit any more, some organic choc and some pretty stationery) and I came home feeling relaxed and happy... to be greeted by Mr G saying, "I've got some very bad news. The police came round."

Now, my sister, who's not very fit at the moment following her foot operation, is on a coast to coast walk across Scotland, but I didn't even think of her. Instead, I instantly thought our 96-year-old neighbour had died. Tears sprang to my eyes. Then he told me the police had been trying to find the wife of the neighbour on the other side. Our neighbours are absolutely lovely. They are Chi Mimi's mum and dad (you've seen the photos of their Bengal cat and they have two others as well). Well, our poor neighbour was involved in a dreadful accident while coming home from work on his motorbike this afternoon. He's had his spleen removed and is on the critical list. I am terribly upset and pray he will pull through. Bloody Friday the 13th, eh?