Tuesday 25th July 2023

Fitful night's sleep. Abdominal discomfort kept me awake for a bit. Got up around 0800. Went out for breakfast at Brown's over the road...very tasty eggs benedict. Drove north-eastward to spend my day on the endless 90s era housing estates of St Mellons. Very depressing! Happened upon a Tesco at lunchtime and ate a chicken wrap in the car in the car park. Got back into the city centre around 1800. Parked up in the Marriott Hotel multi-storey opposite the Clayton, as it's cheaper than the John Lewis's car park, by £8 a night! Walked up to Church Street and ate at Bacareto, a little cichetti bar. Had the beef ragu on polenta with greens,,,very tasty. Stuck my head in at Porter's. Jen already had a long list of players. She pencilled me in for 1045, if I can last until then! Went back to hotel to pick up my guitar and have one last run through. Eclectic evening in Porter's...a metal goth girrrrl who sang along, very loudly, to a backing track on her phone, an excellent singer-songwriter from Newport who I'd seen play there last week, who had written a song about a t-shirt, and a Chinese girl who played her pipa to a backing track...what a treat she was! I had to follow that! But my two Stones songs went down well, despite my Bb harmonica blowing a reed. Got back to the hotel around 1130...