Sunday 26th July 2026

Woke around 0830...back giving me a bit of gip. Aki got up to water the tomatoes...I folded down the ladder and brought it inside to avoid some rain in the forecast. It didn't last long. The snap joints on the ladder are becoming increasingly stiff, though...I need to give them a bit of WD40. Porridged. Did some more wisteria pruning out front before it got too hot. Cut away a large portion where it bends around the window opening...it now looks rather eviscerated! Aki put lunch together. Bussed ourselves down to Highbury Corner, and walked from there to Angel to do a bit of shopping at Sainsburys, then caught a no. 153 bus back home. Upper Street beginning to look a bit tatty...a lot of litter lying about...it looked more like our end of Sussex Way! This city is on the decline...should have gotten out years ago! I made a chicken, mushroom and walnut pasta dish, with cream and parmesan, for dinner...very tasty! Headed off to Southwark to see the Free Association do Jane Austen..."Austentatious"...an hour or so of improvised comic mayhem. The debutantes were good, though the young heart throb had very poor vocal projection which made him difficult to hear...the two old hands were fantastic...polished, inventive, and very funny. We walked over Blackfriars Bridge, and along the new Bazalgette Embankment, hoping for a drink on the terrace at Somerset House, but they had closed for the evening. Walked up to the bus stop on The Aldwych and caught a no.91 bus home...