Wednesday 18th October 2023

Got up and porridged....threw a packed lunch together, and set off for inspections in Somers Town. The stock here was very old...huge, dull early C19th blocks which looked like slum tenements, sitting cheek-by-jowl with the modern Crick Institute, and the British Library...popped in to the latter to use the facilities, and found myself in the Art Treasures room, staring a one of only 235 surviving copies of the First Folio of the Works of Mr Shakespeare. Then headed for Camden Town, Belsize park, and Hendon, where I turned back toward Haringey. Ate my lunch in the car in the car park at Sainsburys in Manor House, then undertook inspections in Tottenham, Finsbury Park, Holloway, and Highbury. Traffic dreadful...major roadworks in almost every direction. Got home in time for dinner. Finished off the tortelloni with the rather underwhelming artichoke and parmesan sauce. 

Caught a bus from the top of Caledonian Road, to Chalk Farm, getting to the Roundhouse just as the heavens opened. We enjoyed a beer at the upstairs bar, and caught a bit of the support act, a female rapper who we'd never heard of. Enjoyed Baxter Dury...great little band behind him...especially impressed by Madeline Hart on keyboards and backing vocals, and the drummer was really in the groove tonight. It was all very bass-heavy, which meant Baxter had to shout rather loudly into his microphone, losing the hypnotic timbre of voice that makes his material so listenable. Left our seats before the encore, as it takes ages to get out of the building otherwise, and walked through Camden Town to the bus stop outside Sainsburys.