Saturday 18th July 2026

Woke around 0500...roofworrying! Must have eventually nodded back off. Got up around 1015. Porridged. Pottered about all morning...did some mandolin practice, and some song. Put a tasty lunch together. We headed out at 1645...took train and tube to Tooting to hook up with Tammie and Franco for steak and chips at a little Argentinian eatery in Broadway Market. The market is a warren of alleyways, crowded with an exotic mix of cheap eateries, and very crowded. Barra 10 is a cut above the rest, serving tasty Argentinian steak and grilled vegetables. The bone marrow on toast starter was good too. Franco insisted on paying the bill, which was very generous of him. He had been to the Montreux Festival a couple of months ago to see Deep Purple sing "Smoke On The Water"! We tentatively arranged to join them for next year's festival by Lake Geneva. Got home a little before 2200...switched on the telly to watch The News...who broke the news that England had scored against France in the Bronze Medal match after only three minutes, so I switched over to watch the game...astonishingly, we were 4-0 to the good by half time...even more astonishingly, the French had gotten back to 4-3 after about 20 minutes of the second half...the game finished England 6 France 4!!! Could easily have been 8-6 to France, though! Bonkers!!!