Dragon slayer

I noticed the angel St Michael slaying a dragon while wandering around Covent Garden this lunchtime. After a bit of digging around, I discovered that the building this carving is on the vicarage of St Michael's Church. The church itself was demolished in 1906 and the Strand Palace Hotel was built on its site. It is one of the few London churches that were deliberately demolished rather than destroyed by wartime bombs.

It was my first day back in the office after the Christmas break. I've been working hard on freelance projects for the past few days so the work part of the equation wasn't too difficult to get my brain around. However, getting up in the dark at 7.30 was a huge shock to the system. The darkness was a puzzle until Fred told me that there was a partial solar eclipse going on. That was quite exciting, but there's too much to do of a morning to try and spot the sun doing astronomical stunts.

It felt only right that the first day back in the office should be followed by the first fish and chips of the year. A lot of people had the same idea and the chippy was full of hungry people. Poor Gary the chip-shop man was on his own behind the counter and was coolly, but frantically, cooking up and packing and salt and vinegaring and wrapping up the goods.

Whisky cat was very happy with some fish donation, but was less happy when we discovered he had fleas and gave him the evil Frontline drops. Fleas at this time of year? Whatever has he been doing?