dead brains don't dance

Thursday

160-mile round trip to Southampton to see Richard Thompson. An excellent night at a good and blessedly smoke-free venue (the newly resurrected Brook - nasty website, and why so many “tribute” bands?), but home at well past 2am.

Saturday

Alarm at 5:30am, and straight out of bed to walk the length of the village to the Balloon Fiesta at Ashton Court. A beautiful dawn that misted over, disrupting ballooning proceedings somewhat, but none the worse from ground level. A lazy day followed, sorting through photos and driving out to Gloucester Road for a few essentials (multimeter, SATA card, superglue, double-layer DVDs from Maplin; conc. apple and blackcurrent juice from the wholefood shop), followed by finally watching The Incredibles, which was a lot better than I expected and will require re-viewing soon to pick out a few more of the multitude of genre and film references that make the thing up. I may blog my take on the film’s socio-cultural underpinnings at some point, but probably won’t bother.

Sunday

Upload Saturday’s photos to flickr and get ready for going to that Lunnon by train to see Show of Hands and the Levellers with ccomley, Liz and friends whose names I characteristically can’t remember. ramtops and I went up at lunchtime, and strolled in a leisurely fashion to Regents Street (no prizes for guessing where), and then to Soho for cups of tea and a quiet sit, reading our books. Walking on in the direction of Regents Park, we stopped for a generally excellent Greek meal in Marylebone (the octopus was a mite tough; the restaurant were decent enough to knock the price of that meze off the bill without even being asked). Meeting up with Chris&Co in the park, we strolled to the outdoor theatre and fine performances from both bands in perfect evening weather. We had to leave before the end to catch our train and hailed a timely passing cab as we were walking out of the park. Home and in bed by 1:30 and now, too few hours later, up and at my desk.