I wake up to another sunny day in Tucson and get started with a swim and then a visit to the shops with Kate.

As we travel around I am struck by the shop names: 'Roses and More', 'Mostly Bears' and 'Chucks Uniforms and Things' are some of those that amuse me. By contrast 'Totally Kids' seems positively decisive. But I guess by not calling themselves 'Totally Toys' or 'Totally Kids Clothes' they are giving themselves the back-out clause that the others also have. I like it. I may call any future business I set up: 'Jean Power, and maybe others, who sometimes do things and sometimes don't do things'

'Ordinary Bike Shop' I have no words for.

Lunch is a weird event at an Italian restaurant which shall remain nameless to save it embarrassment.

Despite only having 3 tables of people to deal with, the waiter seems bafflingly unable to cope with us all. He talks in a constant stream of chatter (I recognise a nervous kindred spirit) which seems designed to cover his strange lack of knowledge about not only the food and menu, but also what his job is, what he needs to do and even the restaurant and location itself.

Kate's pizza arrives without cheese and is served with the words 'Enjoy, whatever you do with it' (I wish we had asked what the options were!) and my request for a menu to see the desserts resulted in a ten minute wait before we watched him take all the menus and hide them. The bill came before a menu finally arrived and possibly even before the correct pizza. We jumped to the entirely logical conclusion that he wasn't really a waiter but a robber, and it had all gone a bit wrong for him.

We imagined him and an accomplice had broken in and tied up all the real staff, but were disappointed not to find any money and somehow found themselves thinking that attempting to run the restaurant for a while seemed like a good bet. How else to explain the crazy waiter and a pizza maker who forgets to add cheese to a pizza? I'm sure you will agreee there is no other possible explanation.

As another table left they shouted to the waiter 'Keep up the good work.' We were unsure as to whether they were serious or as baffled by events as we were. Either way it seems a good phrase to shout when I am next lost for words.

I eventually ordered dessert and of course it wasn't worth the wait. Look at it. Is any of that real or actually edible?

After a visit to a book shop (lovely) and a trinket shop (full of strange things which I'm not sure there is any need for in this world. And I'm usually a fan of such objects) it was back home for beading.

I was determined to bead a funnel or a cone, but was stumped by a few small but important details. 1- I was correct, I had forgotten something when I packed- a whole box of colourful seed beads and only had grey and greyish Delicas with me and 2- I wanted to bead a funnel EXACTLY like Dustin had, but of course didn't want to replicate his work.

Having been equally inspired and humbled by seeing all of Kate and Dustin's work I had reached the conclusion that not only do I not do enough beading, especially for sheer fun and enjoyment; what I do is too commercial and full of corners. There seemed to be absolutely no fun in my work and I often only seem to create when something specific was asked of me. All the time I bead I am thinking about how I will write the project up, how will I diagram it, can I explain it easily? All of this greatly affects my work and I could see that if I let go of some of it, my results could be amazing. Well, it's always good to aim high right? Usually I am perfectly happy with this, but I guess the combination of being tired, unwell and surrounded by amazing work so different to mine led me to think these dark thoughts.

Determined to deal with this I resolved to bead a funnel with NO CORNERS and I was not going to care if it was even and I was not going to think about writing it up. This wasn't something I thought I could do as I seem to naturally add in corners and geometry to all I do recently. But I was determined and took my dull beads and added a crystal to the centre to brighten up my results.

The end result? Well, it has no corners, but somehow I managed to not only make it even, but I also created a perfect scallop pattern on the back. And it in no way resembles a funnel or a cone. Oh and I also immediately got my note-book out and wrote down in detail the step-by-step instructions. So, apart from the 'no corners' rule it seems I failed on all acounts. Looking at it now I do like it, but at the time when contrasting it to the colourful work around me I felt a complete failure.

Whilst all this went on I had the house to myself, but I had no time to mope as soon Dustin was back from the airport bringing with him the whirlwind that is Teresa Sullivan.

I had seen Teresa's work and absolutely loved it and was expecting someone great, and I wasn't disappointed- the opposite in fact.  Teresa is a very clever, beautiful, knowledgable, fun and funny artist who can not only create great work, but talk about it with others, and even got me to bead freely for the first time in a long time.

As Teresa cooked dinner we chatted and chatted about music, London, boys, fun and beads. I think we were both in our element as we talked into the night sitting outside with Dustin.

As I went to bed, having seen some of Teresa's work in person, I felt both elated and full of mirth but also struck by the lack of freedom in my work. As I got under the covers I felt like packing up my bead mat and walking the earth with my head hanging in shame.