My Da’s birthday! And the first I’ve got to spend with him in 6 years! He asked to go to the Tate, so we trundled off, late as always, and just sauntered about the hallowed halls. I got my card replaced (seeing as I never got the other one because they’d written down the wrong address for me) so we’ll actually be able to get to the Gaugain sometime soon.

We had lunch at Paul by St Paul’s, sitting outside in the sun.

The Da found a painting by Cy Twombly that I hadn’t seen before, which he didn’t much care for but which kind of blew me away – huge swirls of bright red paint on an oatmeal-coloured background (sort of the colour of our walls – wish Twombly’d come and do something like this on them!). And the paint had been allowed to drip down from the top of each loop, so it was a bit like standing inside a thicket of fiery willows. LOVED it.

And then we got home far too late and I proceeded to cook a roast paprika & lemon chicken (which took far longer than it ought thanks to the vagaries of this oven) with roast potato, sweet potato and garlic, followed by homemade chocolate cake with extra thick double cream. The masses had to wait a long time for their dinner but ultimately they seemed to think it was worth it.