The weather has been foul all day. It was pouring before I woke up. I could hear it on the window before I’d even emerged from beneath the duvet, and it did nothing but get harder until lunchtime. I was hoping I’d have seen some autumn this week. I had rusty leaves and red skies in mind. Instead it’s been windy and cool, occasionally cold and often wet.

So, of course that wiped out plans for taking pictures and rather exaggerated the appeals of Bluewater, the shopping centre that used to promote itself as being the same size as Cardiff city centre. Technically, so is my bathroom - it just depends how picky you are going to be on defining what constitutes the centre.

It took forever to get there. Well, an hour. With rain pelting the windscreen so hard I could barely see beyond the bonnet and several miles of roadworks in the slow run-up to the M25 it was a painful journey, and even though there were very few people around when I got there everyone had parked in the covered car parks. No surprise there. I ended up parking in the rain and running through it in my new shoes.

It’s surprising how many things you can find you need when you go shopping without a strict list, and I ended with all sorts of useful house-type bits and bobs I’ve never seen before. As a result I now have very organised kitchen cupboards and twice the shelf-space I had yesterday. I also have a lounge that smells pretty, and several ticks next to names on the Christmas list.

Oh, and aching feet, but they were just a bonus. It kind of makes up for missing Wednesday night gym with Kevin. Fortunately I told him last week that I’d be in Manchester at the moment so he won’t have been waiting for me in the rain.

Took what looked like being a better route home along the A13 and then north to Chelmsford, but everyone driving out of London seemed to have done the same, and ended up jamming the roads. Still, it was gratifying to be sitting in a warm car with the radio on listening to news of delays on the trains I should otherwise have been using.

Did some research for tomorrow morning’s breakfast show piece, then read up on the week’s tech news for The Lab. You miss a lot when you’ve not been out of the office. I barely even know what’s going on in the world, and I’d normally listen to or read the online news at least once an hour in a working day. It doesn’t surprise me that so few people know more TV stars than politicians.

Anyhow, tomorrow is promising better weather (and Friday even better than that - best of the week, they say). I’m hoping this means another day spent outside in the sun. Although that breath and holding won’t be appearing on the same bill just yet.

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