NO NIGHTINGALES* BUT PLENTY OF POLICEMEN

When people ask where I get my ideas from, I always mention that I like to do as many quirky and adventurous things as possible.  No, not skiing.  I mean, doing things which are completely different from the things I do in my own life.  Which is how I found myself in Belgrave Square this morning, for a visit to the Argentine Ambassador's residence.

It's situated in one of those leafy London squares which thrum with behind-the-scenes activity.  You can sense the presence of a zillion hidden CCTV cameras and there are London *Bobbies* prowling around everywhere.

Inside, it was gorgeous.  High ceilings, lots of paintings, tapestries, souvenirs from South Africa and a shiny dining table which seats 24.  I particularly liked this mantlepiece in the Ambassdor's office:

And this (rather kitsch but very beautiful) Italian light, which features the Madonna and child plus lots of little cherubs.

But the weirdest thing of all is that when I wrote my one and only story with an Argentinian hero (THE HOUSEKEEPER'S AWAKENING), the book opened with my heroine making the hero's favourite biscuits, which are called Alfajores.  I even made some myself (to add a little authenticity to my story) and wrote a blog post about it.  

So imagine my delight (and surprise) when I was offered a biscuit to have with my coffee when I arrived - and the biscuits just happened to be....

ALFAJORES!

Spooky, or what?

* And the title of this post refers of course, to the dreamy old-fashioned song: A NIGHTINGALE SANG IN BERKLEY SQUARE, sung here by Vera Lynn