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thought it might be the actress Carol Drinkwater (TV wife of Christopher Timothy in All Creatures Great and Small ) though I couldn’t imagine her being “sharp as a tack.”
    Me: Is it C o ral, or C a rol?
    AB: C o ral, C o ral.
    Me: Like the color?
    AB: Well…like the marine organism.
    Me: It’s nice.
    Will: It sounds a bit sharp.
    Me: Yes, like coral.
    Sam: Yeah, the marine orgasm.
    AB: Org-an-ism.
    I wonder if AB will tell the funny/clever Coral about Sam calling Coral an orgasm.
    Love, Nina
    *  *  *
    Dear Vic,
    Mondays are very busy now. I have to go and collect the cleaner (Carmelita—she lives with Karel and Betsy in Belsize Park). And Monday is always Jez’s day for laundry (he only has lectures first thing), so he’s always waiting on the doorstep with his laundry bundle when we get back.
    Jez and Carmelita get along very well. Jez makes her laugh. He asks her if ours is the messiest house she’s ever seen and whether she thinks a nanny might usually find time to clean up just a bit and stuff like that and Carmelita laughs. I’ve asked him to stop highlighting my failure to clean, but their friendship seems to be built around it. She loves him and pretty much never stops laughing when he’s around, whereas when he’s not, she’s quite serious.
    At supper tonight, extra people came round (Granny Wilmers, the Reiszs, the Lahrs and a lone woman called Caroline) and it was my new recipe for Florida coleslaw versus AB’s watercress and orange salad.
    I’d made my salad to go with the supper. AB just turned up with his, unasked.
    His is just a bag of plain watercress, one chopped-up orange, with a bit of olive oil and some ground pepper. My coleslaw is:
    Shredded cabbage
    Grated carrot
    Onion
    1 tin of mandarins
    4 large spoons salad cream
    Chives
    I think more of mine (salad) would have gone if the two salad dishes had been anonymous—everyone looks up to AB these days since all his success on telly, so they’re not going to ignore his salad. Seeing such a lot of my Florida coleslaw left in the bowl, AB made one of his usual food pronouncements, “You’d be better off with mayonnaise or yoghurt, and perhaps not the tinned oranges.”
    My God, Vic, MK has started driving like Mrs. Lucas from Gwendolyn Junior. She stayed in second gear all the way along Arlington Road and then changed into third for a maneuver (which, in case you don’t know yet, is the wrong way round). Plus, she’s right up against the steering wheel. Must be the new car (Saab). Hope so.
    I said to her, “I think you have your seat too far forward.” And she said, “I have to, otherwise my feet don’t reach the pedals.”
    It can’t be right. Are the Swedes a tall race?
    Love, Nina
    *  *  *
    Dear Vic,
    You’re not going to like this, but I’m telling you anyway.
    It’s about Lucas (aka Jack) the cat. At first, I thought I quite liked him, but began to get sick of his food/food bowl. Because the thing with cats (as opposed to dogs) is you don’t have much to do with the actual cat, just the food and the bowl and the leftovers and assorted worries—he hasn’t been fed/let in for his food/let out…he’s got fleas/flu/dehydration. Plus, there’s the thing about them prowling round killing baby birds. Plus, I have assumed much of the responsibility for him since insisting on a name change (from Lucas to Jack).
    Saw a notice in the newsagent:
    CAT WANTED
    Adult cat wanted (neutered) by lonely elderly cat lover
    (Mornington Crescent).
    Have recently lost my old Tom.
    Telephone xxx
    Memorized it approximately, told Mary-Kay.
    MK: So what are you waiting for?
    Me: Shouldn’t we discuss it with Sam and Will?
    MK: And have someone else beat us to it?
    Me: OK.
    Rang the old cat lover and was about to take Lucas/Jack round to Mornington Crescent when Will came in.
    Will: What’s in the box?
    Me: