Dogs not of war, Cute feathery things, Vampire Weekend do not wear cardigans shock, and a radio show.

Oh, goodness, my little chuckleheads - what a time I have been having!  You'd think, wouldn't you, that with Hubble Bubble sitting in the wings like a leashed Dog of War, eager to be at the battle (I'm not actually sure what War Dogs would be like really.  Most dogs of my acquaintance are bone idle, and, faced with any battle you care to name, would most probably be found round the back, eating something they found stuck to a boot), anyway, with this barely-restrained fury about to be published, you'd think I'd be full-on with the marketing and stuff, wouldn't you?

Not a Dog of War. Unless you're a rabbit, and then she's terrifying.

Well, I have had Other Things to do, my fluffy little dustmonsters!  Indeed I have!  Firstly, there was London, where I went to do Some Stuff associated with Daughter 3, trying to work out whether she'd like to audition for Drama Schools down there, and generally peering at them through my spectacles in a dubious way.  I don't actually wear glasses, and had to borrow some for the occasion, which might have accounted for the excess of dubiosity exhibited.  Also, while there, attended the Vampire Weekend gig that I mentioned some weeks previously. It looked rather like this...

only was slightly louder.

Then today I found myself, in the interests of researching a book which is not even going to be the next book, but the book after that, visiting the local, newly-set up, Bird of Prey centre at Duncombe Park.  Well worth a visit, incidentally, should you little snugglebottoms find yourselves in the vicinity whilst attempting to stalk me.  There I met possibly the world's cutest owl, had a Close Encounter of the Cake Kind at the teashop, and furthered my interest in feathered killers, which is always a good way to spend a Sunday.

If you do not believe this to be the cutest little owl you've ever seen, then our relationship is over, I am afraid.

Tomorrow, however, is a different kettle of pencil-sharpenings, for tomorrow I do Publicity Stuff!  I am appearing - if one can appear in voice-only, which I doubt, even if I do it loudly, on Radio York, in a kind of cut-price Desert Island Discs capacity, in a feature called 'Getting to Know..'  Although what they could possibly want to know about me I have no idea, after all, I am an open book, am I not?  All right, the book in question is mostly obscene, and full of diagrams, but even so.  I am also allowed to choose music for them to play!  I did, for one brief moment, think about asking for Peruvian Throat Singing, but I restrained myself, which, I think you can all agree, is practically a first.  If you find yourselves so-minded, you can tune in to Radio York tomorrow between 3 and 4, and hear for yourselves how I convince listeners that I am made of cheese....