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  2. I’ll be on the last day of a week off, I might finally have sold my flat after 15 months if the buyer’s insurers can finally get their fucking finger out, I’ll be looking forward to the second week of Wimbledon burbling away in the corner of the room as I work (without actively watching it). It might have rained by then. I don’t plan to stop any potentially nuclear conflicts, but if the opportunity presents itself I shan’t shirk the responsibility.

      • Thanks! The final hurdle is the company providing the indemnity insurance in the absence of the freeholder approving my answers to their final questions. Those questions were all in the format ‘Can you confirm that … ?’ And my answers were all ‘Yes’ so I’m struggling to see the reason for any deliberation.

  4. I’m going to the Kimpton Folk Fest on Saturday and out for lunch with friends then a trip to Shaw’s Corner, home of George Bernnard Shaw, on Sunday.

  7. I remember George W Bush saying “at a time of our choosing” in similar circumstances. Even though I disliked him, I thought that sounded better than a self-imposed and probably completely arbitrary deadline.

  10. I hope I’ll be luxuriating in being free of the goddam awful flu that’s struck both me and the mrs down, along with half the town it seems. If anybody involved in WW3 wanted to kill me now I’d say go right ahead.

  11. Guests coming to stay for most of July. Teenagers. The daughter of an old friend along with her boyfriend. Never met them before. I predict disaster. It’s very hot; perhaps they’ll melt.

    • Lured out of retirement to do two days per week if consultancy work my first day is 30th June.
      Wasn’t looking to do anything but the deal is very sweet although not sure how long it will be for.

      • Oh God, that happened to me 18 months after retirement. I had a call from my old manager – ‘Only a couple of days a week’ he said, ‘Work at home’, he said, ‘I’ll sort the HR stuff out’ he said. I asked for silly money thinking that would be that, but he came back and agreed it. Of course it ended up with me toing and froing to Bournemouth, finding out it was a project ill defined and with no project management in place, and actually getting me paid seemed beyond them. It all got canned after a couple of months and I eventually got my money, but it was a lesson learned. I stayed retired after that!

  14. I don’t want to tempt fate so hopefully I’ll be sitting on my trusty old couch recovering from my hospital appointment/travel adventures. I’ll be listening to my newly arrived Sir Thomas Beecham box set whilst awaiting the imminent arrival of my cheaply aquirred Samson François box set. I will probably be drinking ginger tea and eating a digestive biscuit.
    The blinds will be drawn and a tower fan will be doing it’s thang.

  16. I’ll be watching the Zombies doc at the Oddysey cinema in St Albans followed by Q&A with the band. I’m also hoping that we will have found a new home after months of house hunting – but I suspect that like Donald the eventual outcome will remain unpredictable.

    • The Odyssey cinema – that magnificent art deco building in London Road, St. Albans! Famous place. Right opposite the Esso petrol station.
      Back in the day, that was the old Odeon cinema, where I went to see films in the first 18 years of my life. Brings back a few memories. On one occasion I was completely alone in the cinema – I think the film in question was that Steve Martin remake of “Cyrano de Bergerac”.

  17. I’ll be seeing Cara Dillon at Beverley Folk Festival tomorrow, then having an eye test next week, followed by seeing Diana Ross with the Halle Orchestra next Saturday (she’s the one with them, not me). The Tuesday after that will be Chicago – the musical, not the city.

  18. I’ll be having a CT scan on my kidneys. I had an Ultrasound scan on my liver (because of meds) a few weeks ago and the fella asked “Has anyone ever mentioned your kidneys? One’s bigger than the other.”

    Urologist chap said “Don’t lose any sleep over it – if it isn’t painful there’s probably nothing wrong.”

    I hope he’s right.

      • This is all part of my once-a-decade Crohn’s-related M.O.T. – at least I’ll know there’s nothing else/much wrong by the end of it all.

        I’ve got to have a chest X-ray, too, to check for scarred lungs caused by TB. I know I’ve never had TB, my Mum says I’ve never had TB, my records don’t mention ever having TB, the blood test result indicates I’ve never had TB, but there’s a process to be followed, so I’m having the X-ray…

        • My mother is the same. However, when she was young, TB was common and it was possible to have scars with no clear history of an infection. She is decades older than you.

            • Well, apparently there was slight inflammation in the large intestine.

              I had the colonoscopy as I’d reached a certain age to be part of the National Bowel Screening scheme and there was a slight amount of poo in my blood. Pretty sure that was just piles as nothing truly nasty has been found, no polyps, no cancer, so I’m happy with that!

              I’ve been referred to a specialist team who will be seeing me at some time in the future.

              Thank you for the manly hugs and support…could be much worse.

        • Before my medication was switched a decade ago (to something that affects my immune system much more) I had to do a test for latent TB. To my surprise they said that I had it. I was then put on an antibiotic course for nearly a year to suppress it. My medication changed again this year and I was checked again, together with chest X Ray and also a test for hepatitis. I was clear.

    • Jury service three times, you have my commiserations. One of the most tedious things I’ve ever experienced apart from one of the witnesses called to the witness box waving to me from across the courtroom, (he was an ex pupil of the school I’d worked at). I was duly dismissed.

      • I did jury service once – I was put straight onto a brutal murder case. That really was duty. The whole time it felt we were being moved in and out of the court room as the legal teams argued back and forth about what evidence was admisible and what wasn’t. What we were left with in the end seemed like only a fraction of what the public gallery saw, and hardly gave us evidence enough to be able to say one way or the other the guilt in the matter. It really was a vision of the poverty of human existence, and left me wondering ever after if we made the right decision or not.

        All being well, I’ll be sitting with my feet in a river in a camp site in a tributary if the Rhine with my family and my younger daughter’s classmates and families. 10 & 11 year old kids are wonderfully fun.

        • I did my two weeks’ duty but was actually only in court for 5 days.

          I found it relatively interesting and really felt the significance of what we had to do. Although we weren’t considering a particularly dramatic case, it was far more serious than shown in many TV shows – no matey banter between the legal teams.

          Overall, I’m proud I played my little part – although I’m glad I wasn’t called for the jury on a fraud case that began the same week and, we were told, was expected to last many months.

          • On my two weeks I only spent one day and two mornings waiting to be empanelled without ever serving on a jury. After the second morning I called the number I had been issued and was told I was discharged.

            • I have been called twice and both times I was called to the jury. As I took my place, the word “challenge” rang out from the lawyers benches and off I went.

              On the second of these occasions, I exited to the street with the other rejects. The lady next to me seemed disappointed and I shared that this happened to me twice now. She said “yeah…they don’t want old white guys….”

        • I was called for jury service while living in West Wales in the early ’80s. A murder case where it turned out I knew the defendant, so I was dismissed.
          She had stabbed her abusive twat husband during a fight in their kitchen and then hid his body under the stairs for a few weeks before eventually going to the police.
          She was found not guilty of murder, his death being deemed self-defence, but convicted for concealing his corpse and given a couple of years probation, IIRC.

          Called again much more recently, late ’90s, at St. Albans Crown Court, for a car-clocking conspiracy case. Two days of to-and-fro in court and the defendants were convicted after changing their pleas to guilty, as the evidence against them made their initial “not-guiltys” look increasingly ludicrous.

  20. We’re off to Dartmouth for a week. We live in Devon so it’s not exactly an adventurous trip but we love the place. Plenty of boat action and a lovely real town vibe. Unlike some posher place full of second homes – I’m looking at you, Salcombe.

  22. I’ll be cruising around the Caribbean getting in as much birdwatching as I can but on the 6th, Mrs Tufnel’s birthday, we’re due to be pedalling around Bermuda working up a thirst and an appetite.

  24. First of July my car goes into dock to have the engine oil strainer unclogged/cleaned, which will entail the sump being removed and replaced (and the catalytic converter, in order to gain access). I will also have to be renewing my road tax.
    Then on the third I’ll be going to Karamel (Collage Arts) in Wood Green to see veteran jazz trumpeter Henry Lowther and bassist Dave Green’s band Still Waters. Only £8.50 as I bought an early bird ticket last week. Money will be tight so I won’t be eating there, as my rent will need to be paid on the sixth.
    Nothing else of note planned until the last half of July.

  25. Late to this, no excuse… erm… cricket.

    Is it ‘Men / Money / Religion / Hating anyone who isn’t a man’?
    I do hope so, I’d f***** miss it if it wasn’t.

    Sorry I forgot where I was… can you imagine the record collection of those involved?
    Oh yes, I’m gonna lump on that pretty damn soon, it’s bound to be good!
    John got it…

    I’m into Bagism, if there’s a sane ‘ism’ that’s it… mind, prefer the b-side.
    Yoko and John get it…

  27. I wish I’d replied earlier now. I’m going to Maverick. It’s my annual opportunity to sling up the tent (and hope it’s not become moth-eaten since last year), have a media detox (the phone signal’s awful) and curate the pop-up stage that isn’t in the programme (artists who’d rather to be playing than not) which I treat as a series of personal house concerts. A couple of years ago Our Man in the Field played a transcendent hour to about twelve people (see Blog extract below) and this year he’s supporting Neil Young in Hyde Park.

    Our Man in the Field are a trio with a guitar, bass, cello configuration who are setting up under the stars and by the light of a fullish moon which glints off the river. They’re using backline for the guitar and bass which means I have to work with their levels, and everything else needs to be carefully balanced against them. Two of their coterie have already advised me as to their sonic preferences regarding the performance and I have taken their suggestions on board, and then refer back to them a couple of songs in to see what they think. I’ve deliberately kept everything low so that we have to lean in to get the sound. One thinks I’m taking the piss. I explain that it’s a combination of my character of ‘Grumpy Sound Man’ and my naturally sarcastic-sounding tone that is probably misleading. Another admits that their suggestion about the balance of the backing vocal was probably wrong. My character graciously reverts to the prior mix. On stage they are joined by fiddle player extraordinaire Chris Murphy, who despite meeting them that afternoon and being invited to sit in, sounds like he’s been rehearsing with them for a decade. It’s enthralling, moving, breathtaking music – the sort that Guy Garvey might have made if he’d moved to Woodstock in 1968 and signed to Warners. I remark to his partner that Chris’s playing is exquisite. “Mind you, I guess I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know?” “Yeah, but it’s good to hear it” replies Barbara Hershey.

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