Baby girl came home on Saturday and on Sunday we had a family celebration to mark her 18th birthday. You may remember she got Karen Millen shoes in the summer and my green monitor rose, well she got a ring from Reiss for her birthday together with this gorgeous 'poofie' or foot stool depending on your geography from her aunt and uncle. I am turning as green as a brussel sprout with envy.

I tried this shot using a rope light - it gave a delicious warmth to her skin tone and a lovely contrast to the white tree lights, but the catch light is like a little snake.

In other news, the camera repair people have text to say they have received my lens and will review the situation shortly - who knows what that means, but I am hopefully they will consider the lens useless and offer me a much more expensive one in return, since it's Christmas you understand.

The concert on Wednesday was a surprising revelation. Surprising because the standard of musicianship within the orchestra was incredibly high and they carefully chose pieces of music everyone would know which was enjoyable. Yet also surprising because whilst my mother was beside herself with excitement so too were the 7,994 other people in the SECC. My sister and I felt like we were 12 again. I have never seen so many over 70s in one place, the number of wheelchairs and motorised vehicles was incredible. It was lovely to watch their enjoyment, but they were behaving a bit like I did when I saw the Bay City Rollers when I was 15! A few paramedics ran past at various points - Most odd.