Saturday 27th January 2024

Alarm at 0730. Hauled ourselves out of bed. Made tea. Porridged. Got ourselves ready for the drive to New Southgate Cemetery. Kate from Rowing Club came round for a lift, and I drove her and Aki to the crematorium...they were saying farewell to one of their number. I left them to it, and ambled around the byways of the cemetery, which seemed endless. Eshogi Effendi is buried there, the Guardian of the Bahai Faith, and Ross McWhirter, he of the Guinness Book of Records, who was assassinated by the IRA on the doorstep of his Enfield home in 1975. Drove the gals back to Islington afterward. Cooked some lunch. 

Walked to Stoke Newington, via Finsbury Park, crossing Clissold Park...got there in good time to make the 1500 matinee of the Tower Theatre's production of "The Real Inspector Hound", an early Tom Stoppard One Act play with some gloriously constructed absurdism. The production was pretty good, though the paced lagged a little on occassion. Jane and Carlos from No.36 were there too, in the company of Carlos' sister Marta and her wife, who were travelling around Europe, having journeyed across the Pond from Philadelphia. I cooked a cavolo nero pasta sauce for dinner, which we ate with ham and cheese tortelloni, followed by panetone fried in butter and maple syrup, with fried banana and custard. Watched "Anatomy of a Fall" on the BFI Player...it one the Palme D'Or at Cannes last year, but it was long and rather dull. We struggled to stay awake. Much needed bath and bed...