Am at home for the weekend in a last-ditch effort to separate myself from the plague. Maternal delight somewhat dampened by the fact that both my father and myself (who collected me en route from work on Friday night) have returned home with disgusting lurgies. Mother has also been reading my blog. I keep forgetting she does this, which makes her occasional remarks on the subject alarming. Since I am days off finishing the essay of doom, she keeps telling me to ‘watch my spelling’ because apparently on the blog it’s not good. I think this is the equivalent of the decades she spent telling me my handwriting was too big. She is also ‘very sad’ that I don’t get more comments, and is threatening to develop sockpuppets for this purpose (not that she knows what they’re called). Anyway, it’s lovely to be home and I’m even more excited about returning properly next Thursday. The cat, now one-hundred and five in human years, is enjoying a new lease of life on pills I can only assume are crafted from gold leaf and mink jelly (given the cost), and has reverted to her usual state of stubby-legged naughtiness. As is traditional, parents have chosen Christmas to rip up some part of the house; this year responding to the credit crunch by remodelling the bathroom. This is less a statement of opulence than my father’s peverse sense of humour.

Father has also succumbed to his family’s genetic tendency to clip newspaper cuttings; or, in other words – have an interview. Ed Bennett’s first interview on taking over as Hamlet. It’s characteristically dry in tone, but also very sweet. One thing I didn’t realise was that Bennett’s a (relative) local – he went to Chipping Campden School and was apparently even a member of the Young Farmers at Ledbury. I always like seeing local actors at Stratford (for, er, obvious reasons). Am-dram to Hamlet in two years, there’s hope.

Starting back at work in less than a week – so excited to see everyone. The two shows will be Romeo & Juliet and Don John, which opened yesterday. DJ is in association with Kneehigh and is meant to be hot stuff – and, of course, Romeo & Juliet (watch the e-flyer!) is dir. Neil Bartlett. Hopefully things will be a little bit quieter than the summer, because I need to learn both shows really quickly. DJ has ‘adult content’, like Shrew did over the summer – every night, the moment of full-frontal male nudity (and I do mean moment) prompted at least half-a-dozen walkouts (and, amusing, at least one old dear asking ‘where was the sex, then?’ when the lights came up a few minutes later).