Several weeks, many of you gave me advice on pillow shopping. At one point since then, I went to John Lewis, but didn't feel I was getting enough advice on how to buy pillows. I was really feeling deeply ignorant about the subject, and wanted informed pillow expertise more than a good bargain for this particular purchase this particular time.

So today, I went off to an outlet of The White Company and spent half-an-hour discussing and trying pillows with an informed pillow person. She could explain the benefits and downsides of each pillow and how they worked on their own or in combination with other pillows. After discussion, experimentation, and price-tag consultation, I ended up - to my surprise - buying two pillows, both for me: a very soft one to put on top of a fairly firm one. I loved how they felt together in the store, and I'm looking forward to trying them out properly tonight!

P.S. I loved the Hungarian goose down pillow. It was like sinking down into a cloud of lightness. But I wasn't quite up to paying £90 for a pillow, however fabulous. Even if I do spent a third of my life in the company of pillows.