A pretty cool week.

I got to spend another fun day in London last week, researching and doing interviews for the final two features I had to write for the magazine I've been working on.
On Thursday morning I went to Notting Hill to meet the very talented Nikki Tibbles, founder of floral empire Wild At Heart. Her first shop was at the so-called Turquoise Island on Westbourne Grove, and is little more than a shed-sized building attached to a toilet block. Westbourne Grove has certainly come up in the world since I lived in west London and it was at once alarming and nice to see how much things have changed. Once again I couldn't help noticing the total lack of West Indian people, replaced by those in barbours, oversized sunglasses and expensive cars. While I was waiting for Nikki's photoshoot to finish, I spotted an actress and a model popping in for flowers. Nikki invited me back to her house to do the interview which I was really thrilled about as it meant I got to have a massive perve around her huge house. Her house is like ours - a 4-storey Georgian townhouse - with the slight difference that hers is in Notting Hill, walking distance from Portobello Road and Ladbroke Grove, whereas mine is...well, you know. Anyhoo, the house didn't disappoint, filled with incredible art, furniture and her spectaculat vase collection. Nikki's mantra is that if a vase isn't beautiful enough to stand alone then it has no business having flowers in it. But then she also advocates using jam jars and buckets, so there you go. Once we'd finished our interview and, curiously a pot of rice pudding each, I left her home and wandered through the streets, down to Bayswater where I got the tube to St Pancras. I hadn't visited since the huge renovation turned a rather grim train station into a hotel and home for the Eurostar trains.  There's an incredible glass roof, an oyster bar, some fancy shops and a huge, hideous sculpture of a couple embracing. I must admit I was really disappointed, expecting something more like Madrid's super cool Atocha station that keeps the trains outside and the people and the trees inside. On then to Clerkenwell for a stroll before my second interview with a bloke whose job is advising residential developers on how to incorporate art and culture into the finished project which was really interesting.
We'd been watching all the Sport Relief stuff on telly all week, including the documentary on the extraordinary efforts of my old Manchester Poly mate, comedian John Bishop. His week of hell involved cycling from Paris to Calais in under 24 hours, then rowing across the channel, then running a marathon every day for 3 days until he reached London.
On Sunday Scarlett and I got dressed in our US Halloween costumes for our, admittedly much smaller effort , running The Mile for Sport Relief.  I was really impressed with Scarlett, running much faster and harder than I did. She now wants to do the 5km Race for Life in July and is already talking about doing the 6 mile run for Sport Relief next year.  She raised 272 quid in the end, which I think is pretty good for an 8 year old.

The weather was amazing again yesterday so we walked down to the new Jerwood Gallery on the seafront and met Janice and Roger for lunch on the sun-drenched balcony overlooking the fishing boats. It was pretty perfect.