Tuesday 10th January 2023

Alarm at 0730. Aki brought tea. Read some David Copperfield in bed before rising to porridge. Raining. It had been forecast so I had stood Leon down, as I didn't fancy tramping the streets in the wet. The replacement basket strainer and waste was delivered, so I spent half-an-hour or so removing the old one and fitting the new one....astonished to see the new one had the same cut out on the rubber seal! Anyhow, it seemed to work, though it was all a bit tricky, as I had to remove the overflow waste as well in order to get the whole thing from under the sink. Fingers crossed. I cooked ham and cheese omelette for lunch. We decided to cycle down to Hinton's plumbers' merchants on the Balls Pond Road, as there seemed to be a gap in the rainfall. It wasn't a particularly comfortable ride, and naturally the shop no longer stocked the shower tap we had bought from them 10 years ago (always buy two...or even three...of everything!). Cycled home to cook dinner. Prepared an aubergine parmigiana lasagne, and managed to slice through the top of the little finger of my right hand whilst trying to slice the aubergine lengthways on our mandolin. Aki bandaged me up, having had a similar experience a couple of weeks ago! 

Headed into town after dinner, destined for the 100 Club on Oxford Street to see Phil's band, Guitar Gangsters. They were supporting The Members, who I'd seen 47 years ago at the Reading Rock Festival! Got there halfway through Desperate Measures' set, and found Phil and his brother Pete hanging out near the merchandise stand. Phil bought me a beer. Enjoyable evening...it wasn't too packed, and there was a decided absence of youth in the audience...I was probably the youngest one there! Matthew Ibbotson (Sir Andrew Aguecheek), and Ruth (Malvolia) turned up, as well as a couple of other Tower members I didn't know. We left halfway through The Members' set...to find it pouring with rain on Oxford Street. I left them at the No.73 bus stop and caught a tube train from Tottenham Court Road station, then a No.259 bus from Caledonian Road. Got in just before 2300...