I’m sick of reporting on the weather. Spring is not quite kicking in! I’m fed up.

Yesterday I went to have my hair done at Richard Ward in the Duke of York Square, near Sloane Square, Chelsea. I told you in a previous blog that I had a disastrous makeover for the Daily Express, with Caroline Stanbury, when we first moved to Chelsea. But I met super talented Nando, the handsome, Portuguese hairdresser from Richard Ward, who cut my hair into a super new look. I went to have my hair cut by him thereafter. 

Nando is the quiet type, except with the staff. With clients, he just gets down to business. He has an A-class client list. When I first started going to see him, I couldn’t believe how quiet he was. “Hello, Sandra,” was the most I’d get and then, cut, blow dry, and out of the chair to part with the cash. Well I wasn’t having that. I started to cackle away … about this, that and anything. Eventually, he started to chat. We became hairdresser-client friends. I brought Ugg boots back from Australia for him. When I said he was getting too expensive, he said, “Don’t worry, I’ll charge you less.”  I refused and found a less senior stylist, Sabrina. He always pats my shoulder though and says hello.

Sabrina is glossy ebony, with pearl white teeth. She’s beautiful. Like me she has endured a makeover: with Trinny and Susannah, celebs in the 90s, who did television makeovers and brought out books about how to pick the right clothes for your body shape.

Sabrina was part of Kate Middleton’s big day, marrying Will, in Westminster Cathedral. She styled the bridesmaids’ hair at the Goring Hotel. She was sworn to confidentiality, of course, which she has honoured. But she did say to me, “It was the most extraordinary experience you could hope for as a hairdresser.” She once styled Kate for a charity event. She told me, “If someone had said to her as a little girl, ‘One day you are going to do the future Queen of England’s hair,’ I wouldn’t have believed them.”

The buzz in the salon around the time of the Cambridges’ wedding was high octane. The press were camped outside for a scoop. What a coup for the salon and for Richard Ward himself.

Richard is also a member of the Hurlingham Club. When I see him my hair is usually in a ponytail after tennis. He is always very friendly and chatty.

When I turned 50, great Aussie mates, Gill and Brett Davis, came to stay with us in London. We did all my favourite “London” things that day. Tennis at Hurlingham (they borrowed the requisite whites from Geoff and me), lunch in Sloane Square at Manicomio next to Richard Ward, the Victoria and Albert Museum in South Kensington, a tour of the Royal Hospital where non-commissioned soldiers (ie non officers) can live in retirement, and dinner back at the Hurlingham.

After we’d played tennis I saw Richard Ward and ran up to him. “Please meet my friends from Australia. It’s my 50^th and they would love to meet Kate’s hairdresser.” He was more than happy to meet them. What a good bloke.

Today Anna is having her wisdom teeth taken out under general anesthetic. I am nervous.