Friday 17th July 2026

Aki up with alarm at 0700 to ready herself for a morning's work in Camden. I languished in bed with a mug of tea. Made some belated headway on adding captions to the Good Golly re-union photo collection. Got up and porridged. Played my mandolin along to a couple of the tunes we'd worked on at the Folk Club last night, before Aki got home...she doesn't like English folk! Aki back in time for lunch. Spent most of the afternoon adding more captions...25 photos altogether, and had to dig out the old programmes to make sure I'd gotten names right. Uploaded them to the Photo-pick sharing site. Aki cooked a chicken risotto for dinner. Watched a bit of telly...including Diane Morgan's new comedy vehicle, Ann Droid. It was a fair to middling start to the series, but I was hoping for a smarter script. 

Thursday 16th July 2026

Woke around 0500...took ages to get back to sleep! Languished in bed until gone 1000. Got up and porridged. Feeling very listless, and depressed...the roofing problem is really getting me down. We headed for Crouch End on the No.91 bus, then walked up Park Road to The Good Reader for lunch. I enjoyed burger and chips, sat out in the south-facing garden. Shelley and Kim turned up around 1400...we had a detailed chat about plans for our Sicily trip in September...Shelley and Kim will be part of Aki's rowing team, but then we will share a car for a few days for a road trip across the island. Said our farewells...Aki and I walked back into Crouch End to do a little shopping in Sainsburys and Waitrose, before we hopped back on a No.91 bus. Put together a salad Nicoise for dinner. Phoned Volodymyr for a chat...no news on any solution to our roof problem, but he promised to get back to me next week. I told him the freeholder next door had given us the all clear. I walked down to the folk club at Highbury Corner to play some tunes with The Angel Band. They are looking for some new blood...a mix of people showed up...mandolins, a fiddle, clarinet, and a concertina, joining the regulars on clarinet, violin and button accordion. Only three tunes they'd sent me included the chords, so I couldn't strum along to most of it...all a bit of a waste of time, but I enjoyed sitting there listening. I didn't stick around afterward. Caught a No.91 bus back to Holloway. Got in around 2145. Aki slunk off to bed early, as she has a work meeting in Camden in the morning. I sat up trawling the internet for chords to the tunes I had, and printed stuff off to have a go at tomorrow morning. Got to bed after 0100...

Wednesday 15th July 2026

Woke to alarm at 0730...Aki got up to ready herself for Rowing Club. She brought me a mug of tea before heading off on the bus...too hot to cycle! Porridged. I popped next door to proffer my apologies to Sush for ruining his weekend...he gave me a hug on the doorstep! Had a chat on his roof...we agreed that the RoofPro team must have raised the glassfibre profile strip in order to slide their ply underneath, butting up against the OSB base on his side of the party wall line. I think I'm going to have to try and elicit an apology from Volodymyr...see what happens. I walked to Highbury Fields and sat on a bench with a coffee and a croissant from the Dusty Knuckle van. Walked home via Waitrose and did some shopping. Aki already home when I got back...they'd cut their rowing short. I put some lunch together. Aki headed off for the hairdresser. I fielded a call from Matthew Sale...some Savills inspections work in the offing. Not sure I want it, given the weather conditions, but I need the cash! Cooked some pasta for dinner, with pesto and burrata, and watched a bit of the build up to the England v Argentina game. Kept having to switch over...too much guff from the likes of Micha Richards and Wayne Rooney...Joe Hart is worth listening to, but the others are irritating. The game was very watchable. 0-0 at halftime. Anthony Gordon opened up the scoring, but the Argies piled on the pressure, and fought back for a 2-1 win. Messi was superb for the last twenty minutes or so!

Tuesday 14th July 2026

Woke around 0800. Email from Rebecca next door giving my draft email to their landlord a thumbs up. Tea. Porridge. Tried sending my email to the contact we had for the landlord, but it bounced back!  Aki went off to tai chi. I printed off some English jigs that I'd been sent ahead of folk band rehearsal on Thursday...unfortunately, only three tunes included the chords, so I don't think I'll last long! 

But had a go at them, playing along to some YouTube links. Put some lunch together when she got back. Sat about doing not very much, feeling very down about the roof shenanigans...the more I think about it, the more I reckon Sush is right and RoofPro are mistaken about his doing repair work at the junction along the party wall line, for which they stated that the warranty had been invalidated. I'm going to have to go next door and proffer an apology, I think. We headed for Hackney Wick for early evening food at Lucia's Taco Bar, ahead of attending the opening night of the newly re-built Yard Theatre. Had tickets to see "Philosophy of The World", a high-octane, mad-cap look at 60's all-girl group, The Shaggs...basically three sisters, taken out of school by their domineering father, having been told in a palm reading when he was a kid that his daughters would be in a famous pop group. They had no musical skills whatever, didn't even know that guitars had to be tuned, and little sense of timing, but dad forced them to write and rehearse for hours on end each day...they produced one album, the gloriously dreadful "Philosophy of The World", got heard by Frank Zappa, and became a cult phenomenon!!! That said...the songs are awful! Quite impressed with the new Yard Theatre venue...it's basically a big and rather charmless shed, but the seating in the auditorium is on a good rake. The show was a bit of a disappointment...got off to a quirky and amusing start, with some very creative audience participation, but the end section descended into feminist agit-prop...understandable, given the subject matter, but delivered in a frustratingly indecipherable manner. Headed back to Holloway...found ourselves wandering past The Upper Place, so headed inside to join a sea of Spain supporters to watch the second half of the Spain v France semi-final...they were in high spirits after coming out 2-0 winners!

Monday 13th July 2026

Woke around 0400. Aki having problems sleeping with her itchy skin. I then got to re-run the worries about the roof for the next hour or so! Must have nodded back off eventually. Woke again around 0900 and sat up in bed with a mug of tea, doom-scrolling for while. Got up and porridged. Aki busied herself re-booking accommodation in Sicily, as we are now sharing much of our journey with her rowing mates, Kim and Shelley. Shelley will be hiring a car and driving us across the mountains from Palermo to Syracuse, with various overnight stops along the way. I continued drafting emails to the landlord next door, and to RoofPro, in connection with the urgent roof repairs required to the party wall parapet. Aki made a cold noodle ramen soup for lunch. I popped up onto the roof to see if Sush and Rebecca had plonked their stuff back on top of the parapet...all clear. Rebecca was sitting at the outdoor table beneath her sunshade...I took the opportunity to tell her I was drafting a letter to their landlord seeking permission to do repair works to the parapet on both sides of the party wall line. She seemed agreeable, but I subsequently forwarded her a draft which she could run past Sush this evening. Put a salmon salad together for dinner, followed by cheese and biscuits. No word from Sush or Rebecca...finally got a message from Rebecca saying they'd look at it in the morning, as she had gotten so little sleep last night due to Saturday's upset! It's all getting me down! Tried to cheer myself up with an episode of Ted Lasso, but am finding the script and storylines rather insipid...don't get why it was so highly acclaimed...new series about to land. 

Sunday 12th July 2026

Woke around 0600...worrying about what to do with the roof meant I was unable to nod back off. Got up and penned a draft letter to the landlord of No.5, seeking permission to apply any repairs necessary to their side of the party line as well as ours, though we've yet to hit on a solution. Drafted a letter to RoofPro attaching a drawing Aki had done detailing a possible solution, and requesting their advice on progressing the much needed work. Watched the highlights of the Argentina v Switzerland game...the Swiss took the game to extra time, despite having a man sent off for diving, but went down 3-1 in the end...so it's England v Argentina in the semi-final!!! Made tea. Porridged. Aki cycled off to Rowing Club. I took a walk to Archway...bit too hot out there to attempt a climb up Highgate Hill. Bought myself a lunch bowl and samosa in M&S and sat on a bench in Whittington Park to eat it, beneath the shade of a tree. Ambled slowly home, trying to find shade where I could. Aki back in time for the start of the Men's Singles Final between Sinner and Zverev. I put a ravioli supper together and then we took a No.91 bus up to The Shaftesbury for Scottish jig band rehearsal. Only us, Ben, and Celia showed up. Sat in the back room and went through a handful of tunes...we were joined for a mazurka by Ewan, a local jazz musician who got his clarinet out. Walked home with Ben. Warm, sticky evening. No football to watch so sat about twiddling our thumbs until bedtime...

Saturday 11th July 2026

Alarm at 0730. Got up and made tea...discovered the RoofPro team sat outside in their van. Got them up on the roof. Sush was already up there clearing away his cooking apparatus...Rebecca hadn't passed on the message that the roofer was coming this morning. The parapet covering was opened up to reveal rotten ply underneath, sat on top of the coping stones. The two Vlads applied some temporary repair to the resultant holes, and retired to consult their team back at Head Office. It looks as though we'll need a fresh, (higher(!) quote. All very dispiriting!!! And the fact that it's party wall greatly complicates the issue. They left around 1100. We await further developments. Lunched on the cheap food I'd picked up through the Too Good To Go app yesterday...tasty enough...a frittata, and a vegetable lasagna. Added lots of salad. Ventured out into the heat of the afternoon...drove to Sainsburys and did a bit of a shop, including some bulk buys. Drove home in time to watch the Ladies Singles Final from Wimbledon...a rather topsy-turvy affair, which ended when young Czech, Noskova, finally converted a match point over her compatriot, Muchova, to take her first Grand Slam Championship...rather moving speeches afterward from both ladies. Daal for dinner, with rice and some vegetables. Phoned Ma and Pa...they had received a visit from Ronan, Emma's helpful son, bearing fish 'n chips. They had gotten confused about Margaret's antibiotics...I had to phone Jim, who was camping in a field near Matfen, to make sure he was in possession of supplies, as we had been informed. He seemed to have enough of a wi-fi signal to pick up the England game later. Phoned Dad back to let him know that Jim had a supply of antibiotics, which he would dispense on the morrow. Watched England beat Norway 2-1...we were lucky to limp through, with some very shaky play at the back, and the game went to extra time, during which I had to fight sleep whilst lying on the sofa...got to bed around 0100.