Tonight:
9°c
It's often discouraging sitting working at home, wondering whether to put the heating on, answering the doorbell to the gas board, feeling it's all utterly pointless.
Now while it is all utterly pointless, at least getting out to work in cafés and libraries is sociable, and warm. You get to see other people and, more important, other people get to see you working.
This is an underrated plus. It's very hard to self-motivate without someone standing over you snarling, ready to hurl the chalk at your head at the slightest slackening. Which is fine - but right now, the London Library, central London workplace to most of the capital's scribes, is handing out earplugs to members as they check in their bags.
The library has been a building site for many weeks, with the juddering of piledrivers only interrupted by fire alarms set off by toast burning in the builders' kitchenette, occasioning lengthy sessions standing around in St James's Square.
So I've had to find a temporary alternative. Now I am chez Lady Bamford (ie at her new Daylesford Organic store in Notting Hill, the capital's most upmarket grocer). It is a far cry from the early scribbling of JK Rowling in Edinburgh caffs.
Things are going so well that I'm almost beginning to regard the clientele, sipping their wheatgrass smoothies or breakfasting on buckwheat pancakes, as perfect virtual colleagues: they never make demands, they're delightfully well-dressed, and they're always different.
Yesterday morning Emily Maitlis, the Newsnight presenter, popped in with her toddler. "Welcome to my workstation," I said, gesturing to my corner, as if showing a minor royal a new community centre. The queen of the small screen's eyes flashed enviously, I'm sure, as she eyed my new office.
• According to a new National Trust survey, only one in five of us is prepared to spend an hour in the car to have a day out "in the countryside". As it takes almost an hour to get beyond the M25, this explains why in London - with our passion for town gardens, trees, parks and garden squares - rus in urbe is all around. But urbs in rure - bringing the city to the country - is a bridge too far for most.
• What is it about Waterstone's, Notting Hill Gate? It was where Frances Osborne chose to launch The Bolter (No 1 paperback bestseller). It is where the gorgeous, leggy blonde Santa Montefiore (below) launched her new novel The Italian Matchmaker this week (which is proving a terrible distraction from my work). And it's where my father is launching his memoir Stanley I Presume next week. Whoops - hold on, must only mention one blonde author at a time. And this week belonged to Santa.
