I am spending this warm and uncommonly sunny Wednesday relaxing after a lively week and livelier weekend, the vast majority of it blissfully replete with delightful and enthusiastic company; the notable exception being an afternoon spent at the TUC Women’s Conference, where I found myself (accompanying the fabulous Catherine Stephens of the IUSW) on Thursday afternoon of last week. Catherine…

In theory, I ought to have been posting from the very comfortable Sheraton Skyline at Heathrow airport, having enjoyed a relaxing journey via the capital on my old friend the National Express, possibly managing to catch up on some reading having as ever abandoned my earlier idea of watching DVDs whilst briskly responding to correspondence and possibly writing my regular…

As you can see, I got my beautiful peonies in the end! Having spent a very pleasant Valentine’s evening (pleasant enough in fact, to forget entirely about Match of the Day and mostly everything else), I was prompted to visit the nearby Tesco before tea on Sunday afternoon, only to find that the previously £20+ (and still spanking-fresh) bouquets were…