Diamond Geezer

Some of you might have read in comments that I got my Diamond Jubilee Medal today.

I don't know how much any of you know about it.

For starters, here's what it looks like:

We Walk Together And Feel Alone

Sometimes...you just wonder what goes so wrong in some people's minds. Reading the news tonight...

I don't know. After all the years in my job, I feel like I shouldn't be shocked. Perhaps it's good I am though. Perhaps some things can't ever be understood. Some people. Some actions.

It's for CHARITY

I'd like all your opinions on whether I should do a very very good thing for charity.

Some clever officers at the yard are organising one of those TASTEFUL nude calendars that are entirely not pornographic and would raise lots of money for CHARITY. So what do you think, should I do it? I mean, look at me, lots of people would buy it if it had me in it, right? And you wouldn't be able to see anything, as it would all be posed all arty like in the film when the old women did it.

Here's a picture of me from yesterday so you can all vote a big 'YES, DO IT' and then everyone will be dead pleased that I agreed and lots of money will be raised and Sally (who is also doing it) will buy me coffee for a week.

Kew the music...

Today was brilliant!

I got on the bike and headed off to Harrow to fetch Mycroft fairly early, leaving Sherlock to bounce off the walls and drag John out of bed and demand to know where we're going, despite John not knowing.

When Mycroft and I got back we were all ready to go - suncream, water bottles, books, snacks...and off to the tube.

Mycroft knew our destination, and Sherlock guessed every stop we went past, and when we changed tubes...

EuroLiveBlogginVision

Right, Mycroft tells me this is called 'liveblogging'. Although I'm not sure I'm doing it right...

Anyway, nearly Eurovision time, so we're watching and I'll probably be commenting on here, with help from my beautiful assistant(s).

Now...plates, takeaway, tv buttons, Pimms, and if anyone gives us 'nil points'...

DANGER SMASH!

(Insert any amusing comments regarding fist....s here.)

bikes, bikes and bikes

Today we dropped a slightly grumpy Sherlock at school, then ran in the park (and Danger engaged in some underhand splashing ambushes as we cooled off by dunking our hands in the fountain.) before it got too completely scorching.

A bit of time at home, showering and ... well, showering ;) and we were ready to go off and play with some bikes!

The blokes there were lovely. Happy to let us try out whatever they had.

So Danger tried out this one:

Bikes, Blokes and Baking

This is the kitchen in a house I've been to fairly recently.

I'm torn between liking it and finding it a bit too cold and stark.

Brains

It's Sherlock because Lestrade said I could do a post. Today after I made breakfast and then John and Lestrade cleaned the kitchen and I sorted out everything in all the cupboards we went somewhere AMAZING. And they both knew about it and hadn't even told me even though we could have gone before, but John said I would have been impossible if they'd said anything but anyway it doesn't matter because we went today and it was all about brains.

There were real actual brains and you could look right at them close and then there were videos and pictures and old brains and new brains and ones that had diseases and it was the best thing ever. They said it wasn't meant to be for people until they were 14 like Mycroft but I told the man all about why I wanted to see the brains and John told him I'd be okay and they let us in and it was great and I've never been that close to a real brain out of a human before and I saw what Molly does when she cuts them up and looks inside and you could see how they use other ways of looking inside in hospital too. They also had really old things about brains and how they used to think they worked and what they used to do if your head hurt and John says he's never cut a hole in anyone's head but he might start with Lestrade's if Lestrade doesn't behave and it was really great and you can go and look on their website to see some of the videos and brains and pictures and it won't be as good as going but it'll still be good and they even bought me the book so I can read that when I'm in bed and I might take it to show Mrs T too. And they had skulls as well and they were good too and one of the brains was from Ancient Egypt and they hadn't mushed it all up and pulled it out through the nose but it was proper and dried up now but still looked like a brain and that's really old. And there was stuff about what happens if you're shot in the head and about music and how you can see what happens in your brain when you hear music and they can see all that with clever scans and what happens when you think and they even had some of Einstein's brain there.

It was the best thing ever and John says it was free so we can go back too. And now Lestrade's cooking dinner and John's asleep in his chair and Lestrade says maybe I could try trepanning on him.

I'm Crazy Like A Fool

Who's the Daddy??

Well...not me. As most of you will have gathered, my sperm is going...well, none of your business ;) but there's only one doctor who's going to be doing anything with it, and it's not Jo and Lisa's fertility doc.

They were completely lovely about it all, and I really didn't feel pressured to do anything I didn't want to.

I'll admit there was an initial moment of 'Wow! The chance to have a baby!' but then reality kicked in, and Jo explained exactly what she and Lisa had agreed about how much involvement the father would have in the child's life, and I told her about John and the boys and...

Children don't do what I have done.

We're just about to head back to London. Mycroft needs to get back to school, and hopefully Sherlock will be tired out enough to have a bit of an early night!

He isn't banned from the internet or anything, by the way, but I think he's staying quiet after a few of you said you were disappointed in him, as he's worried he might get even more tellings off. No bad thing, in my view. He'll be back soon enough :)

John and I went to see Mum this morning. Sherlock wanted to come - presumably to eat her biscuits and glare threateningly for us, but John had a chat with him and he was content enough to stay and go to the park instead. New things to climb on, promise of ice creams, and football and new places to explore always a good bet. Carla, it seems, even persuaded Mycroft into playing footy, aided and abetted by the dogs, no doubt.

So John and I headed off, and it was...fine. Slightly awkward, all of us making small talk and being civil. But definitely a step in the right direction. She asked about the boys, and how John's job was going, I sort of asked a bit about her new man, but to be honest, I'm not sure I want to know too much. Anyway, yeah, it was a good step forward.

It was nice to see Nicky, too. And I'm worried about just how passionate Danger gets after a few drinks when playing sports on the Wii... Stand back, folks! (he won the archery and the tennis. Maybe he really was once a pro tennis player... I won canoeing by dint of being the only one to go even vaguely in the direction I wanted to go...Nicky cleaned up on most of the rest, but she gets to practice all the time!)

I'm Glad It's Your Birthday, Happy Birthday To You

Happy Birthday Mycroft!

Not sure about him, but we've definitely had a brilliant present in that he's at home with us! And taller than ever...

Fourteen. Unbelievable! Where does the time go??

Tomorrow we head off to Nicky's, with hounds and chaos in tow. Depending on the weather we might hit the Camera Obscurer and the observatory... or we might not :)

Carla and Mycroft have Skyped regarding the menu for tomorrow night already, so it looks like the rest of us will be getting the evening off!


The murder that got me out of bed the day before yesterday...or was it yesterday? It's all blurring into one... anyway, it isn't solved, it's very brutal, and the torrential downpours washed away most of the evidence. So it's not going too well. We're waiting on forensics now. (It isn't like on TV - we often have to wait a week to get forensics back, not ten minutes.) But we're all still busy as we've copped a stack of cold cases to review.

It really does feel like it may never stop raining. My bike gear barely dries before it's soaked again.

Got A Dream To Take Them There

Sherlock went downstairs, dressed in smart trousers and a shirt, just before 3pm, and picked Mrs Hudson up for their afternoon tea date. He looked very smart and serious. He also managed to hail them a cab... I'm assuming the cabbie took pity on Mrs H, because if Sherlock can hail a cab within two seconds when I can't, then the world just isn't right...

So they headed off into the distance. (He had given her a small bunch of tulips, too, which we'd bought earlier.) He's been asking about things he should and shouldn't do, too. Mainly when he was sitting on my bike earlier, cleaning it. (It is very clean). He took great joy in proving he could reach the handlebars. I didn't like to point out he had to be plastered to the tank to do it... He's so desperate to grow.

Which means John and I have had a glorious afternoon alone. It wasn't raining, so we went for a bit of a walk first, having been stuck indoors so much recently. John rode the bike out, because he's not riding it enough (in my opinion), and he needs to keep practicing or he'll forget stuff/get nervous/be less and less likely to ride.

Back to haunt me.

Thanks to all of you for all your kind comments about me seeing Bryan.

Like I said, I always knew there was a chance I'd see him around town, but I don't suppose I'd really thought about how I'd react to seeing him with someone.

So...well, I could go on, but then you'd all comment being nice again and we've all done this before, and to be honest, it's not really what I need. Which isn't to say that you're not all right, or that I don't appreciate your support, but it doesn't change how I feel - have felt for a long time now. I think only time, if anything, can do that.

I've said it before...I wish I'd done a lot of things differently in my life. But any single thing might have meant I didn't end up here, now, and I wouldn't change that for anything.

It's a nice day to...start again.

I wasn't entirely idle last night. And didn't think it would be seemly for a DI to get the noise squad called on me.

Hence: