Last night at a book launch, an elegant woman introduced herself: "Did you know we share a plumber?" It transpires that the same man has serviced both our pipes for over twenty years. Indeed, my weekly cleaning team is supplied by his Brazilian wife. The leylines of industry are curious in their patterning. Earlier I'd commented on a strangely garbed guest in a leather winter coat and knitted red hat. When I saw her from the front, it turned out to be an old friend and colleague. Spotting my expression she said, "I know. The colours don't match." She was sporting the Canary Wharf of all diamond rings: "Good expenses, Darling." The novel being celebrated was self published by a highy literate acquaintance: "It's so hard to get publishers to notice you. This saves time and it's a professional product." True. And the book is well written and interesting. But I spotted four improving cuts on the first page alone. That's what gets lost in the mix. As they say, there's no such thing as a free lunch:-o Indeed, my own free lunch cost me dear yesterday. My date had emailed the wrong restaurant name. I circled Covent Garden ninety million times before finding him. As I arrived, steaming and heaving like a mare in foal, he smiled apologetically and ordered me a large sherry. How predictable I must be! But then, we too go back over twenty years. And now, I'm wading through The Seven Basic Plots for one of our workshop exercises. Well, bits of it. Not a single word is misplaced, extraneous or repetitious. There's good editing for you.