Last week the Vice President of Mattel Girls Marketing came over from the US. He’s mega mega important and everyone was running around like headless chickes before his arrival. So I was expecting an old grey-haired fogey, like the old farts at Woolies. But he was quite young, with a full set of dark blonde hair, and was pretty much like a down-to-earth human. Amazing. He even acknowledged that fact that its about time Barbie did something about the ‘ethnicity problem’ like Bratz, at which I nodded my head vigorously and he noticed. Mwahaha! I know there will be an Asian-Indian Barbie sooner or later, and she better be called Sabrina!

That evening we went to the poshest place ever for dinner – Danesfield House in Henley. It was a giant white castle hidden away up a hill, and once you’d got there, there were real life bunnies all over the grass! Unfortunately rabbit was on the menu too. I hope it wasn’t those bunnies. The view from the back was amazing, I had to take a picture, it overlooked a maze all the way back to the Thames. It was quite breath-taking,

On Sunday was Zinnie’s daughter, Shanti’s, 1st birthday in Souf London. It was the first time I drove that way, so thank god for having a tom tom. I missed the baptism, having drove round and round looking for the church and asking everyone on the road. No one had heard of it! Never mind, I got to see Dulwich, which is quite trendy looking. I don’t know why I had imagined it run-down. There is even a Pizza Express.

I went straight to the party. Shanti is quite a grumpy looking child (and I don’t mean that in a nasty way – she just has the cutest serious expression!), but the first time she really smiled was when she saw the Barbie doll I got her. I’m not joking! I have even captured the moments here: