Yep – I know, another tired old cop-out shot. It would certainly be true to say that this was taken with more than a hint of desperation given that I’ve been promising myself to do better and had already missed a day on Friday.

I’m back to working seven days a week and today is my first day back at work. It’s been a bit of a struggle to be honest and when I came home, I managed to waste a couple of hours asleep on the sofa (and, to my shame, dribbling and snoring) while re-runs of the Good Life talked to themselves on the telly.

So, I wandered upstairs in a daze, fretted about not having any subject material and in a flash of completely misplaced inspiration, I took this shot and only this shot. It’s the bookshelves that are behind my desk and they contain a large proportion of my precious stuff. Looking at the shot now, I think it says a huge amount about me:

1. It’s full of records…..yep, old fashioned vinyl ones, every one completely precious. ……Though probably not to anyone else but me. I doubt anyone else would remember the thrill of securing myself that limited edition Joe Jackson album (I’m the Man), pressed onto 7” singles and boxed. I’m even more sure that those Stiff boxed sets and the FYC tins and the Then Jerico limited editions would thrill few people other than me any more……though I’m sure if you ask many other women of my age whether they keeled over with lust over the lush Mark Shaw when he did his stuff on TOTP or better still - live then I’m sure there would be a sizable cohort who’d agree with me wholeheartedly. I can pick out Depeche Mode things, a PY or two and even a Fashion thing in there…..there are one or two of my buddies who’d see them too although not many.

2. In the LPs at the bottom, I can spot Costello, the Clash, Ian Dury, Wilson Pickett, the Seekers, the Partridge Family, Roxy Music, Spear of Destiny and the Escape Club…..a strange mix of my musical tastes but I’m equally proud of all of them.

3. The shelf full of plant reference books are pored over regularly, both when planning and tending my garden and when submitting photos to image libraries. There are plenty of Geoff Hamilton books – my hero, a good few foodie-gardening books and some other geeky ones about trying to live a greener life.

4. A dictionary and a thesaurus are in situ, though to be honest, I tend to use dictionary.com these days and LOVE the word of the day, which I try my best to crowbar into my photo diary each day in a relevant way if I can…..sometimes it works better than others.

5. My gig diaries from the 70s and 80s are there too – one of these days I’ll get around to publishing them accompanied by the photos I took of the bands I saw. It may not happen for another 20 years but sooner or later…….she says.

6. There’s assorted other stuff shoved into any small space – my Spurs membership packs, a colourful tin full of hair-rollers that only come out once in a very blue moon (like my wedding day), an equally colourful tin of coloured pencils and some shells/rocks. All little reminders of “good things” that have no other home.

7. In some moments, best of all is the little postcard that proclaims “dance like no-one is watching” – an ad for Bacardi that I cut the brand logo off the bottom of because I loved the card but hated the brand. I picked it up on a night out with my buddies Shazbop and Champagne Hughie (and DM of course) in a little South London restaurant. It reminds me of a great night – GOLD – and the thought of a night out dancing with the kind of abandon that you only ever achieve when you’re alone makes me smile. I LOVE dancing but never get the chance these days. Ahhhhhh – times gone by. Looking back through my PAD, I found this......I thought I'd shot that "dance" card before, on 11th July 2003, very early on.....you see, it works, it gives you un-erasable memories, this photo diary stuff!

So, I am now officially a geek – and a sad old git – I make no attempt to countervail (dictionary.com’s word of the day) this revelation, whose shelves are full of memories and mementos of times gone by…..soon I’ll be bottling them and labelling them with love…..