satyrica

I worked from home on the Monday as we were due to complete on the house we were buying: after a month or so of limbo and miscommunication, a rush of activity from the estate agent to get quotes for the work that needed doing meant that it was all suddenly happening, which I hadn't really allowed myself to believe until now. N had got the keys and I popped across the park on my lunchbreak to join him and go inside as owners. There were no nasty surprises, so now began the real tasks of getting some work done on it while we got ready to move. We went out for a drink to celebrate when I finished work [N's on half term] and ended up in The Elmhurst, which finally re-opened a few weeks ago and had a much nicer atmosphere than before, with friendly staff. After work on Tuesday, I headed down in Tooting, where N & I were joining M and F for our occasional KES meet-ups, for a drink at The Castle, then food back at the amazing (and amazing value) Mirch Masala, before carrying on The Selkirk, where we all felt our age as we pined for somewhere that we could hear each other better. It was a lovely night, very much good for the soul, although potentially the last time we will be quorate with Londoners, as F is moving back to Brockenhurst after nightmare work experiences.

N cooked in the evening on Wednesday and then I headed back out again to Jamboree, where I once again met up with Ketch, plus a work friend of hers who had saved us some seats. Support came from Andy Twyman, who I'd wanted to see (again?) for ages, and blended bluesy rock & roll with saucy comic songs as his one-man-band schtick (which included playing a rubber chicken). We were there for the Tankus (no longer The Henge) album launch; they had had a couple more line-up changes, with a different trombonist joining them for the first time (and possibly drummer?). It had been got to sit up until that point but I would much have preferred to be standing for a Tankus gig but, as well as an element of feeling socially trapped, the rest of the space had filled up and it wasn't really clear that that there would have been room to dance if I had stood up. Venue quibbles aside, they put on a fantastic show as always. We had a Halloween Quiz at work after we finished, which G presided over once again, although I sort of hovered to one side, only managing to contribute by convincing one team to change a correct answer to a wrong one; I headed off at a respectable time and had ambitions to do things at home in the evening, only to crash out, too knackered to even watch something.

I went into the office on Friday but it was enjoyably quiet there, I just needed to take something over to a guest who was in hospital; I cooked and we did a crossword in the evening. On Saturday I spent the morning carrying on with some light packing and tackling some house stuff, then N & I travelled up to Harrow for A & R's wedding in the second medieval barn we've visited recently in that area, at Headstone Manor. It was a lovely venue and, as expected, a large cast of characters, many familiar from A's festive gatherings, including F, J and R, who had made it despite many adversities. There was a brief ceremony (they legally married last year), some speeches and a great buffet, although I didn't manage to get involved in the ceilidh or disco. A chap I didn't remotely recognise walked up to me and introduced himself as someone else from school (V), who'd been at uni with A, and I also talked a lot to an Egyptian guy A had known in Dubai and was there by himself, having moved to the UK a couple of months ago. R's partner and daughter came to collect her and hung out for a bit, then we headed back into town with F and V before it got too late.

On Sunday N & I had brunch in Dalston, then headed down to St Bart's, where the Great Staircase (with its Hogarth paintings) and Hall had one of its rare weekend openings: lots of others had latched onto this so the little museum was too busy for N to brave but he waited while I sidled round it and then we walked to Wapping along the river. Back in Dalston, I did my shop there before heading home where we were having a house meal in the evening, to mark our last chance to be all together (minus Robbie, perhaps appropriately) before L&R returned to Australia and N&I moved out. J catered impressively and it was lovely to hang out, something that has never really ended up happening during my time there. In the end I slipped away for Family Zoomtime.

After a couple of years away, K & I had arranged to go to one of the days of Victorious festival again. We selected the Friday once we saw that both my favourite band (October Drift) and her favourite band (The Charlatans) were both playing then: when the stage times came out we were aghast to see that, not only were they playing at the same time, but they were both playing very early on in proceedings, at 1pm. So I headed down to Waterloo pretty early on Friday, caught the train to Fratton and wandered down to the familiar Southsea sea-front site on another sunny day. En route, K had got in touch to say that she was having a child-related crisis [well an emotional crisis on the child's part, anyway] so I headed over to The Castle stage to say hi to some of the other OD nuts and watch Man/Woman/Chainsaw, who were playing there before them and I once again enjoyed. I was pretty familiar with October Drift's half-hour festival set at this point but that didn't make it any less enjoyable: there were quite a few people there, given the time of day and clash, but it's quite a big space so hard to feel full. In honour of K I popped over to the Common (main) Stage to catch the end of The Charlatans, then stayed there for most of Sprints before heading back to the Castle to watch first The K's and then Ash (I'm noticing the patterns of with which bands are doing the rounds at this stage of festival season!)

K had resolved her crisis but there was little point her coming to the festival now (especially having missed, what was for her, the main event), so I bailed to go back to hers: to be honest, our plan had been to probably only stay for one more band after that point anyway, one of the options for which would have been The Mary Wallopers, so I missed all the drama of them having the plug pulled for displaying a Palestinian flag. I ended up Uber-ing all the way out to K's, did a run to her local shop with its perky young shopkeeper, and then we immersed ourselves in our usual entertainments before crashing out at around 4a.m. Neither of us had to be anywhere Saturday morning so we did a whole lot of lazing, counting down to when the pizza delivery places opened; around lunchtime she took me to the station, I headed back to London and home for a nap. I had a gig booked in the evening, which Ketch was coming to, so I was committed, and by the time I got there I'd perked up a fair bit. We got to the Camden Assembly during a band called Cereal Milk, who seemed refreshingly to be in perhaps their late 30s, then watched The Number Twenty, young Essex lads who ticked off covers of Oasis, Arctic Monkeys and (delightfully) Killing In The Name Of, but whose own songs were good too. We were there for The Pedals, who I'd only seen once before: their songs kinda blended but it all made me want to dance.

It was sunny again on Sunday (it seems to alternate at the moment) and N & I had brunch in Stoke Newington, the headed over to the Heath where we had a pleasant wander and sat on a bench outside Kenwood with the Bank Holiday crossword before moving on and meeting up with M. N headed off whilst we headed to the playground and paddling pool, chilling while E played. We eventually went our separate ways and back home I had Family Zoomtime in the evening. Monday was the August Bank Holiday and I had a relaxed morning doing Stuff and my shop, then I met N after lunch at Abney Park Cemetery, where we sat and did more of the crossword before tea on Church St. Back home I cooked in the evening.

I was once again due to meet my guest at the Polish Consulate on Tuesday morning but it was once again a bust, although he swore he'd sent me a message cancelling. I didn't hang around long though before heading over to the office and was at home in the evening. I was covering the Earls Court day centre again on Wednesday then we attempted to have our Round the World Dinner (sans N, who's been fighting off some lurking lurgy for a couple of weeks now): I'd booked an Angolan place in Brixton but once we got there, the guy told us that they only really did the Angolan food at the weekend and his Mum (the chef) was on holiday in Portugal. We decided to bail and walked round to the Algerian place we'd been to before: after much sucking of teeth, the one-man-operation who runs it gave us a table; it was great food again, although we felt slightly like we had to rush it. Thursday I was back covering the Stamford Brook drop-in and home in the evening.

I was still on leave after getting back from the festival: N was off too and we viewed a property we liked the other side of Bruce Castle Park on Tuesday morning, then headed down to Stoke Newington for lunch in one of the delis along Church Street, before a wander around Abney Cemetery. Otherwise it was a mostly chill, recovery day, with a Zoom with my parents in the evening. Then on Wednesday we headed out fairly early to get the train up to York: it had been my New Year's Resolution for both 2024 and 2025 to visit the city, which neither of us had been to since we were children (and I had no memory of at all). The train was quick and efficient, getting us there in less than 2 hours: we quickly found somewhere we could stow our luggage and headed straight for York Minster. Having been to a fair few cathedrals now, I spent a while thinking that York Minster, whilst impressive, was just more of the same (albeit the Chapter House was a highlight) but right near the end the trail took us down into the Undercroft and we suddenly discovered a great exhibition detailing all the history of the site, including the discovery of the Roman remains that the Minster was built on. It gave the context I'd been craving to everything we had been seeing and contained some great artefacts.

Ready for lunch, we succumbed to a Yorkshire pudding wrap along Stonegate [every road seemed to be something -gate, but the four actual gates to the city were called bars] then had a little bit of a wander before walking all the way wound the city walls, which were extensive and impressive, as well as a good vantage point to spot sites and peek into gardens. Once we were done it was time to collect our bags and check into the Travelodge, which was situated above a Wetherspoons, although we never really felt disturbed by it. We spent some time chilling out until we were ready to head out for the evening and first had a couple of drinks at the House of Trembling Madness back on Stonegate, which we loved, then some food at Fat Hippo (a burger place I had remembered from our last cathedral visit, in Durham). We were both pretty knackered and ready to head back and crash once we'd eaten.

Thursday was our only full day in the city, so we wandered out fairly early and wandered up the Shambles before they got too busy (we'd deliberately gone mid-week but it was clear that tourists (such as us) were a huge factor in the city. We were also booked at the Jorvik Centre fairly early: I hadn't been quite clear what the set up was and started to worry it might be a but tacky, but we had a wonderfully clear and articulate guy doing out initial spiel, then the 'ride' through a reconstructed Viking street was actually pretty interesting, before we wandered through a few galleries of artefacts (including the much-vaunted coprolite) at the end. We went for a pleasant wander along the Ouse (getting the news that our offer had been accepted on the house we'd viewed as we did so), then back into the centre for lunch.

After lunch we went our separate ways for a bit: N went to visit the Railway Museum, whilst I went up Clifford's Tower and to the York Castle Museum which, take note, had nothing at all to do with the castle that once stood on the site. It was a pot pourri of social history, really: the initial collection being old objects a doctor had collected from poor families in lieu of payment; there was a reconstructed Victorian street, an exhibition about World War I and a history of the prison that the buildings had been, including some nifty projections in the cells. We met back up at Over the Rainbow, an amazing neurodivergent-friendly queer cafe and bookshop, for tea and cake, then back to the hotel for some chill time. In the evening we sandwiched an amazing meal at a vegan East Asian restaurant with drinks in a couple of the endless supply of historical pubs that the city had to offer.


Friday morning we checked our bags back in at the shop in the centre, then finally poked around the Museum Gardens until the Yorkshire Museum opened, which also turned out to have a great collection of items, especially from the Neolithic and Roman eras. We were ready for lunch afterwards and had lunch at a pub that the friendly owner had just taken on: they did traditional, hearty meals (pork belly, shepherd's pie etc.), which you bought (very reasonably) just as the main, then you could get the trimmings as add-ons, so we shared plates of cauliflower cheese, veg and Yorkshire pudding, everything accompanied by lots of peppery gravy. We had a bit more of a wander around the centre, popping into a couple of incredible, historical churches (especially Holy Trinity, Goodramgate with its box pews) that could have easily gone under the radar. I then popped into the small Roman Baths museum (under the pub of the same name) before we reconvened, collected our luggage and went to the station in plenty of time for the train back to London.

We went home but I turned around and pretty much headed straight back out again to a gig down at Dream Bags Jaguar Shoes as I was really keen to catch Bennie Jetz, first on the bill there: he had his band behind him this time and sounded much heavier and more alt than he had by himself. Gig-regular B and his new girlfriend S were both there as well and incorporated me into their group, which was lovely: especially with Bennie being as friendly as ever. Soft were next up, so it was a double-whammy of acts I was excited by, although they rise and fall a bit depending on the energy in the room. I stayed for headliners Chest, who were fine but didn't make as much of an impression.

The heatwave was reaching a peak on Monday and we were back in the 30s, which everyone seemed to be reacting to like it was a natural disaster, but the older I get, the less I mind the heat. I do think it may have sapped my energy though as, with N working late all week, I was home by myself in the evening but couldn't manage anything more productive than lying on my bed, watching Glastonbury playback on iPlayer. I had been pretty philosophical about missing out this year (the line-up didn't excite me and I've had plenty of turns), but seeing everyone there in the glorious sun, hearing some work colleagues and Josh heading off there, then seeing some of my bands added to the bill on some of the smaller stages at the last minute, I was pining for it. Tuesday was much the same in terms of weather and how I spent my evening (my main regret about the Bob Vylan controversy was that they would have been the first band I would have wanted to see on Catch Up) although I managed to cook and do a bit of crossword in the garden with N when he did return as well.

I worked from home on Wednesday then headed out in the evening to the Fiddler's Elbow, where I met up with Ketch for a gig: it was some kind of Northern Soul-adjacent night, I believe, and the first band we saw were called Scarlet Sometimes, a six-piece whose lead singer had just the right level of smooth, assured theatricality and threw in a cover of Sweet Jane. We were there for The Station who brought their infectious energy, although the crowd had thinned out a little. They weren't the headliner but we called it a night once they had played. I was actually able to join colleagues for a Thursday post-work drink for once, although had cats to feed so couldn't stay long, then cooked and watched more Glastonbury catch-up when I got home.

I was working from home again on Friday but headed off a bit early to get the train down to Woking, then walk out to Horsell where my brother and his wife had booked out a wine bar for the evening to jointly celebrate their upcoming fiftieths. I was one of the early arrivals but it filled up with abut 45 people and had a nice front area out on the pavement where we could sit in the sun. There were a couple of familiar faces but none of A's old old friends so I mostly hung out with Mum & Dad, who it was a great opportunity to see, enjoying the ambience and excellent charcuterie. They were still going when I walked back to the station, getting back home by about 12.45.

On Saturday I had brunch with N up the road at Cafe Lemon before he carried on to the theatre and I went back to Sainsbury's to do my shop. After a couple of hours at home, I went over to Harlesden to visit L and we played Cat Sudoku and Marvel Splendor. I travelled back home, fed the cats and myself, then went down to The Water Rats for my first This Feeling gig for ages: it was a typical line-up of young guitar bands, but they all impressed. First came Ini Lowe, who were classic indie and impressive, with a couple of more energetic numbers; next up Lame had a bit more of a beat behind them but great energy; I was there for Yorkshire lads The Slates, who didn't disappoint and one of the Freight Train crew was up from Bournemouth to see them, who was really friendly; then finally were The Pedals, whose frontman had a sharp contrast between his estuary speaking voice and more crafted singing voice but I also enjoyed, throwing in a Catfish cover.

Sunday morning I dutifully went round watering all the many, many plants as J was in Poland, then headed over to Broadfield where Em had come down to visit M last night and I chatted to them as they eased themselves into the day: we went along to The Garden Cafe for some lunch, then back to the flat for more chatting. By the time it got to about 5, E needed to drive home and I needed to feel like I had moved around at least a bit so walked down to Warren St through Primrose Hill and Regents Park before jumping on the tube home for a quiet evening-in by myself.

I was back at work on Tuesday and didn't get away until nearly 7 but had an evening in to continue festival-recovery, then on Wednesday we had one of our Vauxhall meet-ups: N & I rendez-vousing with W (who I'd only seen briefly at Bearded Theory, so could properly catch up with about his festival) and K&D in the (slightly unloved) bar/food-stalls set-up in the arches at Vauxhall, which was really lovely.

After two days back at work, on Thursday I disappeared again to head off camping: luckily we had the morning to get ourselves ready, then lugged our stuff over to M's for just after lunchtime, where we packed her car, collected E from nursery, then drove on down to Marshwood Farm in Wiltshire once more for camping with KES lot. We were all only doing half a week this time, which felt about right to me: TQS and E, E&A and most of the Hornes had come down the night before, with the Robinsons and ourselves joining Thursday afternoon. N had come so we were in a bell tent again this time, which at least meant minimal set up. It was lovely to see everyone and we did a lot of chilling out around the campsite: Em had prepared a chilli to feed us all with, whilst J&E had brought an oversized bottle of champagne for us to celebrate their 15th Wedding Anniversary with them.

I hadn't done too badly for sleeping at Bearded Theory but between the light, the birds and the sheep, I pinged awake very early on Friday and snuck out of the tent (not very successfully, given some very loud zips) at about 5.30 to hang out in the hut, so I could enjoy the early morning peace without disturbing N. As they move towards a more consistently teenage demographic the kids were generally up less early to join me this holiday (although little I was already there when I got up on Friday, meaning she ended up stroppy and overtired at the end of the day. As we eased into the day, the main activity of the day turned into a trip to a local cheese shop (and general deli) that N had heard tell of. TQS gave us a lift [getting stuck in some police-halted traffic for a while whilst a lorry transported what appeared to be half a house through a village] and J&E also came before E headed off back home to see to responsibilities there. Back at camp, the Sucharovs arrived and in the afternoon we all (minus N, looking forward to some child-free time) walked up through Dinton Park to the recreation ground in the village, where we sat on the grass with our cans while the kids hit the playground. We walked back to camp, where S conjured up a pasta dinner for everyone and we had a fire at night.

I managed to sleep until 6am on Saturday, then once we were all up TQS drove N & I to the big supermarket in Salisbury to do a shop for the BBQ we were having that evening. We all ventured out to Old Wardour Castle in the afternoon sun, which despite being a ruin had a surprising amount still going on inside the parts that remained, and the adults lounged on the grass while the kids (and a couple of adults too) ran around playing 'the wave game' which never seemed to tire. E came back in the evening, bringing eldest son T with her, who it was good to see, although they drove home again after the BBQ which, despite some false starts with some unsuccessful fuel, ended up working out well, what we had bought being supplemented by some offerings from CostCo that T&T had brought along and a fantastic cheesecake which Miri had whipped up.

I was up at 5.20 on Sunday which was departure day and we all rounded up belongings, packed-up tents and ate exciting combinations of leftovers for breakfast as we fairly efficiently cleared out by mid-morning. M drove us back to West Hampstead, only for us to find that the Met, Jubilee and Mildmay lines were all down and the Ubers we tried to book cancelled on us, so we eventually managed to lug all our stuff home via the Thameslink and Victoria lines, somewhat frazzled. I immediately crashed out on my bed, with all my unpacked bags around me, for a much longer nap than I intended, but did still have time to head out to do a shop and then had Family Zoomtime in the evening.

I had my alarm set for something beginning with a 4 for us to travel to Heathrow on the Tuesday as we headed off on holiday to Prague. We were there for the first Victoria Line train of the day and negotiated our interchange station being closed due to lack of staff to still make it to the airport pretty much on time. N had been determined to fly with Lufthansa (after being traumatised by BA last time we went abroad) so we changed at Frankfurt but it all went pretty smoothly and we got into Prague just after lunchtime. We negotiated the bus and tram over to the Nusle area where our AirBnB was located. We got in after some key shenanigans with another resident int he building: it was a good sized flat, with a living room which I was able to camp out in after N had gone to bed (and before he got up), so we unpacked and I had a bit of a nap before we wandered out into Prague in late afternoon. We went on foot over to the old palace area of Vysehrad, which had some nice buildings and remains, as well as good views over the rest of the city, then descended to the riverside and walked up the Vltava. It was an idyllic sunny evening and we stopped at a bar on a theatre-boat for a drink (cider was prevalent in the city) before wandering on, then into Nove Mesto to find somewhere for dinner. As always, N was keen to sample as much local cuisine as possible, which largely seemed to mean pork, and we found a traditional-seeming restaurant, which seemed to be catering to a large group of Czech locals and served us enormous chunks of meat. After our early start we jumped on the tram back to our accommodation: travel was incredibly straightforward around the city and very relaxed, seeming to largely rely on trust.

We decided we wanted to understand the history of the place before we started seeing sights, so that we understood the context for it all: we'd bought food so we could self-cater breakfasts and lunches as always, then headed out on Wednesday morning for the National Museum, loitering outside ready for opening along with all the school trips. It covered a lot of things but we just whizzed around the pre-history/natural history galleries to focus more on the story of Prague: it explicitly said it was more there to convey impressions that to teach but there was still plenty of information and lots of interesting artifacts. The grand original building took us up to the start of WWI, then we crossed via a trippy subterranean passageway to the new building with an even more impressionistic take on the last century. After a pit stop in the cafe, we wandered out via Wenceslas Square to the Stare Mesto and poked around there, admired synagogues from the outside (as you could only pay for a ticket to go into all of them and we just wanted to go into one), then wandered along another bit of the river, crossing over to the Western bank. N spotted a cool looking midcentury building which turned out to be an art gallery, Expo 58, so we climbed up there and stopped for a coffee. We wandered on to Holosevice and poked around as it was supposed to be a bit of an arty area: we didn't find anything specific but everywhere we went there were these incredible, pastel, art nouveau buildings with amazing statuary, frescos and other decoration, just on everyday buildings, making even the most mundane of streets a joy to walk down. Having sought out the amazing steampunk Cross Club for an afternoon drink (much needed on a hot and sunny day that we had spent walking everywhere), we came back across the river to the areas of Karlin and Zizkov, where we spent a little while wandering in search of life (away from the touristy parts, bars and restaurants seemed more scattered around the city than in clumps) before having dinner at traditional-style bar. We were near the striking Television Tower so headed to that and went up to the cocktail lounge for a drink and a view across the city before heading back.

Thursday morning we went over to the Castle area, climbing up to its front entrance but first taking ourselves round the art collections in the peaceful Schwarzenberg and Sternberg Palaces, eating out lunch in the latter's lovely, secluded garden. Then we headed on into the (much busier) castle complex itself, the Royal Palace, St George's Basilica, the charming Golden Lane and finally the imposing cathedral. The cathedral is the main thing I remember from my trip to Prague with M, over 20 years ago, but it wowed me less this time, partly because there was scaffolding going on and maybe just because it was the first time I'd seen anything like it then and I've got more used to grant, Catholic cathedrals since. On our way back down we managed to find a nice cafe, set back from the busy street and opening out into a big, chilled garden, to have cake, then headed on home for some downtime. We came back out in the evening and went to Vinohrady where we sampled a couple of local wines in one of the vinotekas, then found a vegetarian restaurant on JZP Square (which was sadly being dug up), to get some respite from the meat-heavy and vegetable-free cuisine we had been enjoying so far; just as the group of locals eating at our restaurant on the first night were all men, the staff and clientele here (besides us) were all women and there did seem more of sense of more gender-segregated socialising for anyone we saw over about 30. After dinner we scoped out a little gay bar that wasn't far but there wasn't anywhere to sit so we just called it a night.

We were up and out early on Friday to get down to the Charles Bridge before it got too thronged: it was the only time it rained over the holiday but that didn't impact us too badly and, once we made it to the other side, we wandered around Mala Strana, then back over to some more bits of Stare Mesto, ending up at the House of the Black Madonna, a cubist building and museum, which was interesting. We went back to Wenceslas Square so I could do some clothes shopping at C&A, then headed home for a bit. In the early evening we travelled over to Smichov: whilst trying to avoid anywhere too lads-on-tour, I'd been struggling to find some kind of local nightlife to connect to, there were a few venues which I could see hosted live music but nothing that quite lined up with the days we were there. One place was Meet Factory, your classic industrial building int he middle of nowhere repurposed to an arts space, which we went and checked out, having a drink even though we were the only people there. We had a wander back down the other bank of the Vltava (right by the Staropramen brewery), then through the everyday shops and restaurants of Smichov, before finally finding somewhere to stop for dinner back up towards Mala Strana. We hadn't really appreciated it, but it was quite a fancy place, attached to a hotel, but everything was so cheap in Prague that even their extremely nice, haute cuisine versions of traditional classics, only cost us the same as a normal meal would have done in London. We walked back over the river, getting good, nighttime views up the castle and then hopped on the tram home.

We had found somewhere to go out for brunch on Saturday but after that I went back to the AirBNB: given we were there for a week and had hit all of the major sights that had interested me, I wanted to have some time just chilling out, whereas N had some more museums etc. that he fancied that I wasn't so fussed about so headed off by himself. After a very nourishing day reading, journaling, editing photos etc., I rejoined him at the Grebovka park where we had a drink at a gazebo on top of a hill, poked around the villa, pavilion and grotto, then wandered out to another venue (Cafe v Lese) which seemed like it would have bee cool if we weren't the only people in it, before another traditional meal at a pub with a rowdy crowd of locals. Afterwards we headed back to the river and had a hot chocolate at a grand, waterfront cafe before catching the tram home.

On Easter Sunday we headed into town and had a bit more of a wander around Josefov then on to the central station to catch a train out of the city to Karlstejn where we slogged up through the village to the Disney-ish castle in the glorious sunshine. You could only go into the castle on a guided tour, which we did with an engaging young guide, then I went by myself on a little wander out into the hills before returning to join N for cake in the village prior to getting the train back into Prague. We went to Stvanice (one of the islands on the Vltava), wandering past a 4/20 cannabis festival in a skate park (I never quite pinned down the legal status of cannabis: there seemed to be shops offering it throughout the touristy parts of own) and found a busy area around a mobile bar, with lots of people chilling out or BBQing on the grass, where we stopped for a drink. We headed back to a vegetarian restaurant we had scoped out previously, not far from the Old Town Square: it turned out to be fancier than we had realised, but really lovely. Afterwards we headed back to the flat and I was able to join Family Zoomtime, one hour ahead.

Monday was out last full day in Prague and was warm and sunny again: we travelled over to beyond the castle and wandered through the gardens there, once they had opened, then back up to Letna Park to check out the enormous metronome. After that we went our separate ways for a bit: I walked on to another park, Stromovka, which I had a good walk around, wandering back through Holesovice, Stvanice and back into the Stare Mesto before heading back home. I came back out again to meet N in a bar attached to a bookshop called The Globe in the Nove Mesto, then wandered from there to Bohemia Goose for a final fill of traditional food, then bac to a literary-looking bar he had clocked on our first night, before returning to The Globe for cheesecake, with which I finally had the absinthe that was advertised everywhere, although it was disappointingly un-aniseedy.

We weren't flying until after lunch so, after a failed attempt to leave our luggage at the station, we had brunch near the Museum of Decorative Arts, which N then visited while I sat by the riverside with our luggage and a book. Once he came back we travelled back out to the airport, where we checked in for our flight. We were changing in Zurich on the way back, which was a lot tighter time-wise: after hurrying through the extensive airport corridors, we made the connection, however when we got back to Heathrow it transpired that N's case hadn't done, which was a pain. Once he'd logged it as missing, we trekked back across London and home in time to have some dinner and settle back in.

We had D&D on Monday and managed to finish the arc we've been plugging away at for quite some time, so are going to take a bit of a break (not least because our GM is moving house). It was Shrove Tuesday and I was home and had remembered and planned for the first time in years so dug out the pancake pan that M&D had given me when I still lived in Richmond and cooked something: my pancakes were an absolute mess but kinda hidden as they were layered with filling, then N & I did a crossword. I got home from work late-ish on Wednesday but had another evening-in, then on Thursday headed straight from work to Camden for the Muso Awards (the precursor to which I'd been to a few weeks ago) at the Electric Ballroom. It was a pretty random event: sponsored/organised by Soccer Six, which didn't quite get the momentum it was obviously hoping for, as they cursorily non-attendant announced winners for various awards between live performances from a good crowd of acts, all playing about three songs each, but the line-up was stuffed with acts I like and various other Camden-scene bands I know (Sweet Unrest, Stereo Cupid) were peppered throughout the modest audience. Harvey Jay Dodgson opened proceedings again, so I was glad I got to see all of him with time, then Rikki Lee (meaning that 4 out of the 5 'finalists' also played the awards), Lock-In, who I'd enjoyed a few years ago at a This Feeling gig but never had capacity to catch again, followed by The Now. The real coup of the evening was that an unbilled Pete Doherty (who had collected an award in person) played a few songs with Kyle Falconer, and they also played a couple by themselves. Tom A Smith played a couple and then there was a longer set from Laurie Wright, who was the winner for the 'Inspiration' award, before Fntsy played the same number of songs as all the other acts they apparently 'beat' for the chance to perform. Also unbilled Max Bianco played a couple of songs and a surprise Charlie from Dead Freights came on to join him, which I was pleased I stayed to see; there was more to come but I'd definitely reached my limit and headed off.

I was back in Camden the next night and A came up for some more music: we had a drink at the Black Heart first then went to the Camden Eye for another of Sweet Unrest's Sweet Spot nights, which it's been a shame I couldn't make it to more of, as they always have a good line-up. They were very accommodating of A's need for a seat and we first saw A66 who were young and enthusiastic, Dead Freights were on next, creating great energy in the smallish room and A really enjoyed them; they were really friendly when they saw me too and had BFF Max Bianco in tow again. Sweet Unrest headlined as usual (they seem to play constantly), throwing in another cover in addition to their now-traditional Play That Funky Music; some people had come to see them who had just seen them busing outside Kings Cross station last weekend and the night had a great vibe.

I shopped in the morning on Saturday, then met up with M in Hyde Park: after a lot of cold, wet and grey, the sun had finally come out and we took E to the playground there before a meander around the Serpentine, then sitting on the grass by the Italian Gardens with drinks from the cafe there. I travelled from there to Brighton and met back up with A for another gig (this time with a friend and her grandson J) at the Prince Albert. We'd missed one band, chatting downstairs amongst the post-match football fans, but saw The Tridents, a local surf trio playing mostly instrumentals (the only two sung numbers were covers); they were fun, although it all sounded much of a muchness to me. We were there for young Finnish rock & rollers Us, who it filled up okay for and played with their usual intensity. I got the train back to London and got in sometime after 1am. On Sunday I caught the train down to Egham and walked over in the sun to P&R's for our annual pre-Empire group get together: it was mostly just nice to see people and check-in with each other but some discussion of logistics also took place. I came home to cook for myself and N, then joined Family Zoomtime, although most of it was taken up with trying to fix my parents' tech issues, then crashed straight afterwards, exhausted.

Between everyone’s comings and goings, we’d put D&D on pause for the month, so I just had a quiet evening-in on Monday, then Tuesday evening was the latest leg of our Round the World Dinner: this time it was Portugal’s turn and we were just off Regent’s Street, meaning I’d got to see the Christmas lights along there, which were pretty impressive this year. I headed home after work on Wednesday then out again to Hackney Wick for my first trip to the Colour Factory: I met up with PFW to immerse ourselves in Fat White Family’s Counter Vortex experience, which was essentially just seeing them in a more intimate setting; whilst the stage was in the centre of the space, there was a fairly consistent ‘front’ that everyone crowded round.

On Thursday I travelled up to L’s in Harlesden after work, we had dinner together and then joined R on line for our monthly chat/boardgaming; it’s always more the former than the latter but we snuck in some rounds of Love Letter. I worked from home on Friday, finished at 3pm then got the train out to Newbury where K & I were meeting at our familiar haunt of The Hatchet. We’d been quartered in their ‘cottage’ out in the beer garden this time, which worked really well given that it wasn’t exactly getting well used in the middle of winter and so we were away from everyone and didn’t emerge from our room once until 10am the next morning, after our usual all-night extravaganza of cards, quizzes, murder mystery games, online escape rooms and shitty retro games shows.

I caught the train from there to Oxford (less direct than you would think), wandered up into town and met L & family, as well as both A & A, in the café of the Weston Library, a new addition to the Bodleian since my days. It was L’s birthday and she’s just put her first novel out into the world, which I was mid-way through, so after lots of fun chat, A & A headed their separate ways and the rest of us poked around an exhibition they had there which was Oracles, Omens & Answers and pretty interesting. I caught the train back down to London and headed over to A's in Shepherd’s Bush for dinner and it was lovely just to have a really chilled out evening-in with someone, drifting between chatting and watching stuff on TV.

On Sunday N & I headed out and did a wander down through Hoxton we’d found online, a lot of the ‘sights’ weren’t very notable or didn’t exist anymore but we saw lots of cool street art on the way and carried on down over London Bridge to The George for a Sunday Roast. From there we wandered some more along the South Bank and up to St Paul’s, then I got the tube alone up to Finchley to pick up a present at Leisure Games and do my shop at the Sainsbury’s there before travelling home and joining Family Zoomtime in the evening.

It was D&D as usual on Monday evening, then on Tuesday I came home for food then headed out again to the Village Underground for a gig. Support came from Bobby Wolfgang, who I want to love but every time I’ve seen him in his post-Strange Bones guise the music has been more tease than release. The same could not be said for headliners Snayx who provided plenty of release to a responsive, energetic crowd.

We had our latest Round the World Dinner on Wednesday evening, a Burmese/Myanmar restaurant in Shoreditch which had great food and a bustling vibe- it was good to catch up with A&E after their month in Australia. I was home and cooked on Thursday evening then Friday I went home for food and out again to the Stag’s Head in Hoxton to meet up with Ketch for a gig. We saw a fair bit of Danny Marriott, a young five-piece: we’d shuffled in awkwardly at the back and they seemed oddly distant despite the tiny space. We moved forwards and felt much more connected to Sad Sells, a six-piece from Manchester: the singers seemed to be in a relationship so when they threw in a Fleetwood Mac cover, we hoped they weren’t modelling themselves too literally. We were there for Oli Barton, who the crowd disappointingly thinned out a bit for but we greatly enjoyed.

N & I had brunch in Stoke Newington on Saturday morning then headed down to the British Museum’s Silk Roads exhibition: it was the second weekend it had been open and we didn’t get there until shortly before midday, which was poor planning on our part as it was packed out. They’d also seemingly tried to play on the ‘road’ concept by having quite a linear set-up to the exhibition, snaking through the space as it displayed items in geographical order from East to West, which was poor planning on their part as it just ended up as one, fixed traffic jam crawling its way around without any way to vary or overtake. There also didn’t seem much of a narrative to it beyond ‘here are some items which show trade between different regions’, which was a shame as there were some fascinating pieces in there. I ended up skipping whole sections so will try to go back at some stage.

I went home via my weekly shop then headed out again early evening to catch the train out to Wolverton: after a slightly sad experience eating Chinese takeaway in an Aldi car park, I made it to the Crauford Arms, a cool-seeming rock pub with a great venue space out the back. I had a great evening of watching young rock bands, first Skelta who used lots of rawk voice and included a Linkin park cover and were great, although I couldn’t work out if their singer was the drummer from The Tarrows or not. Next were Headswitcher, whose singer engaged with confidence, but I’d come out to see Torus, who’d been playing everywhere as a support band and this was their hometown headline show: they’d reached out to encourage me to come, which I’m a total sucker for, but it was well worth it, as they played an hour-long set to a pretty packed and responsive crowd, then it wasn’t hard at all to get back to London and home.

On Sunday I met up with M over at the playground at the bottom of Primrose Hill and we caught up while E rampaged around the various attractions there, I walked back up to Swiss Cottage with them, then travelled over to Stoke Newington where AW-A had gathered people for a roast for his birthday, which was nice, especially getting to see B&T-M again. N&I came home, where I had Family Zoomtime in the evening.

I was home for the start of the week: D&D on Monday night, I cooked and played the Bob Ross boardgame with N Tuesday, then on Wednesday N was out and I had the luxury of a rare evening in alone to cook something laced with chilli, onion and garlic and bimble on with stuff. Thursday was our Summer Social at work, which was also doubling as a leaving-do for K from the Fundraising Team, who was heading off travelling: after a period of blissful stability we suddenly had a little spurt of people leaving. We started with food and games at the office: playing Werewolf en masse was fun, although I opted out of the Musical Chairs. Then 11 [appropriately] of us headed to a bar round the corner called Sixes, which did a cricket-nets experience, which everyone seemed to enjoy, despite only about 2 of us having held a cricket bat before. I left the youngsters wandering off in search of a club at closing time and headed home.

On Friday I was going to a gig that had somehow acquired a life of its own: A's friend Mark was on my gig email I sent round and, after J had come to and really enjoyed Adult Cat, both Mark and A had said they wanted to come, then Mark invited some friends and ended taking us all out for sushi [probably my first proper sushi experience] beforehand, then we headed to the Macbeth where we met up with Ketch. Having hurried to get there, we ended up hanging around for almost an hour until any music happened: first up were Colour Me Blood Red, a slightly age-mismatched trio [I always suspect someone's Dad is involved in these circumstances] who I enjoyed; Adult Cat played a more country-tinged set than when J had seen them at the Troubadour, which may have affected their chances of living up to his hype, but I was excited to see them playing on a bill with headliners Dead Freights again, having first seen then supporting DF round the corner at Roadtrip & the Workshop.

On Saturday I was heading down to Southampton for R's Summer BBQ: N bowed out as he had a cold and I caught the train down to a busy Southampton (they were hosting their first match back in the Premiership as well as Pride, which it was incredible to see the station I passed through every day between 11 and 18 decked out in rainbow flags for)- I got the bus out to Holbury, arriving pretty much on time but a good hour before anyone else, so helped R&D prepare and foraged for snacks, having forgone lunch. Others (L had driven down and most of the rest I'd met at previous gatherings) got there around 3pm but barbecuing didn't start until after 4pm, when the rain cleared and one benighted husband sat out in the garden cooking everything while the rest of us stayed indoors. There was a mound of food and I had to head off pretty soon after the desserts, doggy-bag packed away: a small crowd of us were getting the bus back into town and, by the time that was delayed, the next London train was cancelled and I trekked back, it was well past midnight by the time I got home.

On Sunday N & I went to visit Sutton House & Breakers Yard, a quite unexpected Tudor house nestled unobtrusively in Hackney: it wasn't huge but really interesting and I especially enjoyed the way they had done up different rooms to reflect different eras of the house's history, including when it was squatted in the 80s. We had lunch in the little development across the River Lea Navigation from Hackney Wick. I headed back to do a big shop, then chilled at home, with Family Zoomtime in the evening. It was the August Bank Holiday on the Monday, which always feels like the end of Summer, and we'd invited N's crew over for a BBQ of our own. I ventured out to Blackhorse Road on a spice-seeking mission in the morning, walking back via Walthamstow Wetlands and Tottenham Marshes, before making my preparations: it was much more about the elaborate salads than the smattering of meat, in stark contrast to Saturday's version. A good crowd came, including surprise appearance by C, up from Wiltshire, and stayed until early evening.