We were both very excited last night, when we discovered that the really rather wonderful Magnetic Fields are coming to England in the autumn! Luckily Orynthia has managed to get us some tickets for the gig in Manchester on October 30th, so we get to see one of our favourite bands, in one of England’s most interesting cities and catch up with one of Orynthia’s relatives who currently studying in Manchester. Top news all round.

I spent quite a lot of today and this evening listening to the extraordinary new album from The Fiery Furnaces – Blueberry Boat. It’s due out here in early September and it may well take me that long to get used to it. Amazing lyrics combine with a clunky sound, which veers from lo-fi electro to 1970’s piano led singer songwriter stuff. At over 76 minutes it is probably too long, but they obviously wanted to give their imagination free reign on this one.

News of an important radio show for all lovers of British cakes ( that's me then!) can be found here.