5 July - Only in London

One of the reasons I like living here, and must be pretty much what anyone not born here will cite, is the variety of people it throws up. Mostly briefly, but even so always entertaining. Tonight we're out with yoga bod friend of Toph, the Malesyan accountant who lives in the suburbs in a perfectly formed little flat boasting a pole in the living room. In the two years since she took it up, she's become very proficient on it and has made many friends in that field. She doesn't work in clubs but has gone to see new friends performing there and happily spends the evening. She's forbidden from talking to punters though as they could easily mistake her for part of the package. She's an odd cross of homebody and god knows who she picked up her English from but it's full of east end colloquialisms that just sound funny coming out of her mind. She's pretty sharp and seems happy having finally found the older guy she was after.

She's fresh from taking a week off work to spend it at the London College of Fashion learning to cut/make clothes. She has the dress she made in her bag and very pretty it is too, in a 50's Mad Men sort of way. Am flattered that she thinks I should try it and therefore fit into it, since well, she has no bum!

She invites me to go watch her practice on a thursday and maybe get some more classes. I reply that I know myself by now and I just don't have the personality that keeps at something till I get good at it. She's reached level 4 after 2 years but that's with going pretty often and of course practicing at home.