Well. I’m back from a couple days at the very grand Horwood House, a few miles outside Milton Keynes. It actually wasn’t too bad. The other people on the course were OK, and the time passed pretty quickly. The trip also gave me a chance to catch up with my old friend Temps for the evening. He lives about 3 miles away from Horwood House, so it was an ideal time to go out for a meal together. This may seem a bit odd as Temps, still comes to all the home games at Ashton Gate, but it has been known for our conversations to get interrupted by the football from time to time! After a lovely meal in a splendid old pub called The Lone Tree, we popped back to Simon’s house where I was able to say hello after a long absence to Carolyn and their unusually amusing Kids.

As I was driving back I was listening to a very entertaining chat and live session with The Flaming Lips on Mark Radcliff’s afternoon show on radio 1. The band is playing in Bristol in the next week or so. But I messed about when it came to buying tickets and then when Orynthia went to get some last week, it was sold out. It’s a shame, we have seen them twice before and they are an unusual and enjoyable live band. Still it’s a lesson learnt.

Forgot to mention that I finished The Autograph Man by Zadie Smith last week. When I wrote about last, I was not very impressed. However, the next section of the book was far more interesting and gripping. Now it may just be coincidence, but this part of the book was set in New York! Suddenly the book just went to another level for me. Unfortunately, when the action switched back to the London, the intensity of the writing seemed to be lost once again and the book just seemed to drift away.