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After my all-time-low-Sunday when Philip was at the Duke of Richmond's, Gillian at the Ritz and me at work, things have looked up a little.

Last week, at our place in Greenwich were Gillian, Louise, Rachel and Helen. Philip and I had to run away from home to our corporate apartment in Marylebone as there was no room at the inn for the owners!! It was a bit sad to go though, as the four of them seemed to be having a lovely, girly time, all new in London together.

I got to catch up with a lot of them though, including the all-star huge cast affair at a lovely pub on the Thames last Tuesday. Check this list out: Rachel McClellan, Helen Johnston, Claire Falkner, Clare Sinnott, Melanie Gaskin, Kylie Flower, Louise Yip, Adrian Ross, Grant Newton, Philip Bartle, Brendan Cole, Madeleine Collinge and me. What a group!!

On Thursday, I left for our corporate trip to Disneyworld. The entire company (plus a large number of families) all descended on Disneyworld Florida for a fun weekend of cheering, patting each other on the back, and discussing how smart we all were. In between times we danced a lot, revelled in the heat, and joined the queues at the various gameparks.

Not being a total Disney freak myself, it was still interesting to note that the whole place is getting a bit dated and worn out. Some of the classic rides are definitely creaking. There are some very clever new rides though, much along the lines of the stuff they've built at Te Papa.

The most horrendous experience was our 50s classic sitcom lunch. We wandered in to this relatively nice looking restaurant totally naively, only to be told off for having our elbows on the table and not eating our greens. If you didn't respond you were sent to stand with your nose in the corner while the whole restaurant haraunged you. And they call this fun??? Not being into public humiliation myself, I force-fed myself an ENORMOUS pile of beans, and earned the subsequent horror of joining the 'Clean Plate Club'.

Back to London Monday, and it was off to the Notting Hill Carnival with Philip's friend's Steve Wright and Shelley who were down from Birmingham. This is a huge Afro-Carribean dance party/parade type affair that takes over a huge chunk of London's streets. It was great fun - pounding beats, enormous elaborate costumes, and some great dancing. The only place I've seen costumes and dancing that compared was at the Mardi Gras in Sydney. Unlike there though, in the Notting Hill version people seemed to find their favourite float and dance along behind it. This meant that the parade got longer and longer, and took hours to pass by, but you got to watch 2 million ordinary people really let their hair down and have a wow of a time.

After that, we couldn't resist wandering past Kensington Palace, where a small crowd had gathered on the anniversary of Diana's death. I think the crowd was smaller than they expected. There were flowers, and a constant throng. But the twenty port-a-loos and the bemused looking policemen told the tale that they were ready for a lot more.

With an enormous street party only 10 minutes walk away, I guess a sombre memorial just couldn't compete. This week, Princes Harry and William came out and asked for the public to let the mourning go and move on. The scenes at Kensington Palace certainly indicated that the public are doing that, it's just the papers who haven't caught up.

This week has been a busy work one - blegh, but we are nearing a due date, so what can you do??? Tomorrow we will be lining the banks of the Thames for the London Boat Race, where a motley crew of different sized boats should arrive in Greenwich eventually.

Next week, Linda (as in Linda Nicholl, my baby sis) arrives to make London her home. That's really exciting because I haven't seen her since she went to Japan to teach English last year. All the current Greenwich residents will have to clear out, as we have a Family First policy operating on the dosser front.

As always, I hope you are all happy healthy and having fun.