Feed me Seymour

I had this book on Victorian art titled Hard Times which turned out to be totally relevant to the essay I am writing. So I thought I had better renew and, of course, it had been recalled by somebody else. What are the chances of that happening? Ten billion books in the blithering biblioteque and they want the one I've got. This meant I had to scoot into Bloomsbury to return said book, and then re-request it. Ha!

While I was there, I popped into Senate House library and climbed the stairs to the musty 6th floor. It's claustrophobia city in this place - the shelves are coming at me - the walls are closing in! I was searching (rather unsuccessfully it has to be said) for some books I had looked up the night before, when a little man with a mop of wispy hair appeared. He put down the mop and asked me if I needed any help. I said yes, to which he muttered 'Bugger!' under his breath. He was a little strange, but remarkably helpful, and within minutes I was sitting at a desk in the shadow of a teetering tower of dusty tomes on Victorian art. I had only intended to be there for a few minutes, but an hour and a half later I was staggering down Malet Street under the weight of a dozen hefty volumes. Had a browse in Waterstones in the happy knowledge that I had a healthy clutch of book tokens nestling in my pocket, but resisted the urge to splurge on this occasion. Back home in time to walk Lady Jude and start working my way through pages of text.

This evening's entertainment was The Little Shop of Horrors at my favourite theatrical venue, The Menier Chocolate Factory off Borough High Street. We met David and Grahame and had dinner at Giuseppe's Ristorante (http://www.giuseppe-ristorante.co.uk/index.html) which I highly recommend. Great food, gorgeous wine and really relaxed service. We even had a singer performing rat-pack standards - which sounds awful but it was perfect. Giuseppe bid us good evening as we shuffled off to the Chocolate Factory.

The show was excellent. We sat in the front row, so pretty good view too. Mike McShane voiced the plant (Audrey II) and Paul Keating and Sheridan Smith took the main leads. During the interval I heard a familiar voice behind me, and looked round to espy Paul O'Grady. No Cilla though. Anyway, if you want a laugh, go and see this. Once it opens (it's still in preview) I think tickets will be hot.