Here we are back in Bristol, after a couple of nice days in London. Thanks to the wonder of the APEX ticket, managed to travel on the train for only £18 pounds each. Also managed to find a nice little hotel just between Edgeware Road an Marble Arc for only £40 including breakfast!! Bargins all round. To continue on the theme of bargins, once we had dumped our bags in the hotel, we set off, in the warm spring sunshine, to West Norwood, in deepest south London. For a journey that took about 80 minutes, we were only charged £1 each! By Bristol standards - amazing. We spent a few hours with Orynthia's splendidly named Aunty Tiny, before heading back towards Brixton for the Belle & Sebastian gig at Brixton Academy. We had a quick walk round the fantastic food shops in Brixton before sitting down for a drink in a bar just down the road from the venue. The clientle at the bar was a glorious mix of boisterous elderly West Indians and geeky indie types. Then off to Academy, my first visit to this huge old cinema. The first band to play were a Glasgow 4 piece call "Life Without Buildings", not huge on conventional song stucture, but I did quite enjoy the bass driven melodic lines that lurked beneath the surfice. Reminded me of The Au-Pairs being fronted by Bijork. Around 09:15 B&S ambled onto the stage. A similar set to last years tour but this time instead of being joined by a Dixieland jazz band, this time a local Steel band provided a bizzare but entertaining interlude. Afraid to say that the "sound" was not as good as it could have been, we were about 4 songs in before the string section could really be heard. An enjoyable gig but not a great one.

Thursday was Orynthia's birthday. So as a treat for her we went to see an exhibition of photo's taken by Kevin Cummins featuring The Smiths (Orynthia has always been rather smitten with Johnny Marr). Lots of memories came flooding back, enjoyed seeing the pictures of the fans as much as the band. What splendid hair we all had in those days!! Then it was off to the Conran shop for a nose around at all the things we can't afford, before heading to Soho for lunch. A really nice little Italian in Frith Street set us out in the afternoon, with tastebuds suitably tickled. Saw Lenny Henry in a book shop on Charing Cross Road, before heading off to Hyde Park to watch the Belle & Sebastian invitation football match. I did have thoughts of playing, however it was about 20 a side, on a very bumpy pitch, so I thought I would just enjoy the food whilst watching the indie boys (and a couple of girls) indulge in a fairly robust match. Orynthia also spotted her 2nd Nissan Figaro of the day, to round off her birthday in style. The train home was almost on time, quite rare for a train out of Paddington!

The birthday celebrations continue this evening at The Croft, where we aim to dance the night away with John Stapleton, Ian Green and Phil Darby in control of the decks.