onionbagblog

Buzzed: Photo feature: a walk from #Stockwell to #Camberwell and back to #Brixton

Ash made me smile first thing. Novara have been on a rich run of form of late. Yeah, they’re a bunch of cocky street rats punching above their weight. But I like their style.

Tell It Like It Is.

I set off for an early morning plod around lovely Larkhall. I thought I was doing a half decent job, being the early bird and all that. But this was nothing compared to the tennis couple knocking up before 7am.

Strava tells me I was one second faster than the lunchtime run around the same route yesterday. I confess that I cheated slightly by pressing the stop button on my Garmin 10m ahead of the flat.

Album of the Day: The Temptations – Cloud Nine

It’s quite a leap from My Girl to psychedelic soul. Obviously there was a middle act to help with the transition. But still. Grapevine’s got a great groove going off, something that even Marvin couldn’t achieve.

The soul is still there; the soul is always there. Plus it’s cool to hear the familiar Motown house sound bass pumping along, holding it all together.

If you wants the Temps to do anything, then psychedelic soul it probably is. Country soul may have worked. But Cloud Nine is a product of its time. It still stands up well.

⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

A brief clean up, and then I cycled off for a school day in SE21. The Flute Man of SW8 was AWOL once again. I’ve not seem him for the past week, either mornings or afternoons. I kinda miss his constant, yet slightly annoying, presence.

There was some fella waiting for a bus along Stockwell Road looking cool as fuck. He carried off the Captain Sensible look to perfection: Dennis the Menace jumper, red beret and a pair of shades.

I caught up with a CHPT3 Brompton as I waited for the lights to change along Brixton Road. It’s a beautiful bicycle, combing style with form. If I had a spare couple of grand then I might be tempted.

It was a pleasure to ride the Railton LTN, as ever. Each time I ride this route I’m convinced there are more cyclists using it compared to last time. Build and they bloody well will come.

Sam the Wheels was outside his Front Line house, keeping a watch on all the bicycle movements. I wonder if he has benefitted from the LTN?

It then got a little shitty as I approached Herne Hill. The crappy Great Wall of Brockwell is back ahead of another month of the park being pimped out by Lambeth. We’re currently in the build phase. This means FUCK OFF lorries at peak rush hour outside the park.

Cheers, Lambeth.

The school day was really, really great. I had a run of not so great SE21 days at the start of the year. These have somehow turned around. I made a real effort to have a positive attitude and to try and enjoy myself once again.

Highlights included a fun cycling session with some of the primary kids, pizza art and soft javelin throwing with the sixth formers.

Aim high, fellas.

I also got to play my latest Jase the Bass composition on one of the school ukes. I decided to keep the lyrics out of it. Every other word is a chuffing profanity, innit.

The school day ended with a community walk with the sixth formers around a very leafy Herne Hill. Everywhere we turned there was green.

I cycled back down to The Oval at school chucking out time. I managed to make it to the old ground just ahead of the tea interval.

I indulged by buying a cup of tea in the Pavilion. A BARGAIN for a milky lukewarm effort at £2.60.

My disappointment was overcome in watching two ex-England openers at the crease for the ‘rrey. Rory and the Vicar of Sibley are quite an opening attack.

The Skipper was out the next ball.

Oh Rory.

No worries. Here comes the new England Vice Captain out of the hutch for the ‘rrey.

OH HAI Ollie.

I stayed around at The Oval as the shadows deepened. I left with five overs remaining in the day. I’ve got a whole weekend of being on the piss in the Peter May planned.

I cycled back down Clapham Road on a Lidl run. The Bright Young Things of SW4 overtook me continually on their roadies, the BYT commuter bicycle of choice.

My Lidl mission was to blag as much pasta as I could carry using the Lidl coupon in the app that dropped earlier in the day. I snaffled up six packs of fresh pasta.

Some online catching up followed back in the flat. The Serpentine Swimming Club mailed. Some members continue to be right twats, bringing their own food into the Lido Cafe. We’re on a final, final warning. The discount may be stopped.

A pinged from back in the bloody Estuary Wilds. A new front door was fitted today, replacing the old new front door. It was hanging for less than three months.

The geezers that fitted the original weren’t happy with the build. We could see no wrong.

A asked the new team what was wrong with the first door. They drew a blank.

I caught up with the Garibaldi Red podcast ahead of The Last Dance at the World Famous City Ground on Saturday. I was a little shaky when the Arsenal match was billed as Survival Saturday.

Attention turned to the West Ham semi. I got bought. I switched to Sheff Wed Vs Peterborough instead when the scoreline got interesting.

Football. Bloody hell.

Album of the Day: Duran Duran – Rio

A classic album? Seriously? Style, yes. Not sure about the substance. With no shame, this was SO familiar back in ’82. I even had the poster on my wall.

Four decades later and it was a pleasant morning singalong, but nothing more. I quite like the hint of something more sinister on Save a Prayer and Lonely in Your Nightmare. It wasn’t all sugar gum pop. But it belongs in a time capsule and will probably stay there for me.

⭐ ⭐

Another day in which the taxman will thank me for, it not my personal social secretary.

Pay to play, innit.

I did manage to get out for a brief couple of laps of lovely Larkhall Park at lunchtime. Some of the banked verges of SW8 had been freshly cut. Others it seems are taking part in No Mow May.

The park was half cut – a bit like me a couple of decades ago, stumbling around lovely Larkhall, looking for the meaning of life.

Some random fella was twatting a golf ball around the park. I’m all for access for all, but Larkhall is a little restrained.

Actually, I just bloody hate golf.

Back at base and I noticed the alliums are out in the South Lambeth Road garden. They never fail to deliver. Alliums take a mathematical approach to growing. The flower head appears almost scientific.

GP was the soundtrack for the working afternoon. He played out a great interview with Linda Lewis from 2018. Some wonderful tributes followed, along with half an hour or so of showcasing THAT voice.

What a girl.

I caught the first half of the Man City Vs Real game. With the scoreline of 3-1 at HT, I switched to ‘Boro Vs Cov in the plays offs.

LIVE THE DREAM.

Album of the Day: Incubus – Make Yourself

I came close to bailing halfway through the first track. Horrid, horrid rock music. And then the turntable kicked in. Interesting. I persisted through until the end, ignoring the cock rock posturing, but appreciating the experimentation with the turntable. Not horrid, horrid rock music after all. Just horrid rock music.

⭐ ⭐

A day of staying in, getting my head down and earning some dough.

Pay to play, etc.

I had plenty of tunes to keep me company. It was decent to hear the return of René LaVice on the Drum ‘n’ Bass show.Yer man is more on the Jungle side of the sliding scale. None of this liquid drum ‘n’ bass, thank you. Which is a ridiculous thing to say for a 53 year-old male. But I was buzzing off me tits, anyway.

I caught up with the BBC Nottingham round up of the football from over the weekend.

BALLS to BBC impartiality. The commentary from Wembley over the weekend for the Super Pies is superb:

“NOTTS ARE ALIVE!!!!”

Betcha.

I managed to edit the pics from the Transpontine photo walk with the PEN F yesterday. I’m happy how the colour held up in very average lighting. The PEN F favours stretching the colour balance. These were shot in no nonsense auto mode.

full flickr

Those nice folk at Colne Radio shared a video with me. It’s a short capturing the the enthusiasm of the recent training course graduates.

My role was minimal. I was on the recruitment drive to get people signed up. Some of the personal stories about how the course has helped to change lives were genuinely quite emotional.

Lunchtime was spent giving the South Lambeth Road hedge its first serious trim of the season. I always put off the idea of doing this, but then when I get stuck in, I bloody love it.

The hedge trimmer is the Tool of the Gods for any OCD based gardener. I set myself a deadline of an hour. I made sure that I could get my hedge lines as straight as possible in the allotted timeframe.

I listened to a few tracks from the new album by Galen and Paul Simonon. It’s bonkers! There’s a Mediterranean feel to it, without losing that defining bass line from yer man.

The final audio find of the day was the Unprecedented podcast from Guto Harri on Global. It was a right pain in the arse to access this. I don’t want to give my phone number to a legacy media giant, just to try out a hit and miss podcast. A fake number and email addy seemed to fool them.

The podcast itself is, erm, meh.

It teases you with all sorts about the Boris Johnson shit show, yet doesn’t really deliver. The timeline is fucked, jumping all over the bloody in the storyline. The most amusing aspect was slipping in a paid ad for Peppa Pig World.

I switched to the play-offs instead. This is the BEST time in the football season. I’ve seen the many permutations for Forest ahead of Arsenal at home on Saturday. Three points at the World Famous City Ground will stop all this fannying about with ifs and buts.

Album of the Day: The Beatles – A Hard Day’s Night

I surprised myself by not really knowing many of the songs here. You assume that The Beatles back catalogue is immersed into your brain.

But no – there are some lost gems on here that gave me a little more interest once again. Tell Me Why sounded like a new song for me. It’s a fun album, something that tailored off with The Beatles output that followed.

⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

To Sunny Stockwell!

Yep, that time of the week, innit.

I had the company of an over-friendly fella on the train. He took an interest in the tourer bicycle that I was transporting to Ldn ahead of a meet up with my buyer.

Technically the tourer is no longer mine. This didn’t halt the nerves when the over-friendly fella started to poke around and ask questions about the crank.

I suspect the morning diet of Special Brew fuelled the interest.

Chin chin, over-friendly fella.

He then completely ruined our new found friendship by advising me to avoid the Greater Anglia toilet facilities:

“I’ve just dropped one.”

Oh.

It was a delicate ride from LS down to Vauxhall, the meet up point for my bicycle buyer. I had a very heavy Brompton bag on my shoulder.

Now was not a good time to puncture:

“Cheers for buying my bicycle, mate. Apologies about the flat tyres. Sold as seen, etc.”

This was the first time that the tourer had actually been in London. It was, I suppose, on tour.

I cycled around The Oval along the Harleyford Road. There was a mass of S Ldn kids all over the old ground and out on the wicket. It was very encouraging to see.

My classic London Knights baseball cap then blew off.

Bugger.

I watched as one, two and then a third car managed to avoid driving over it. A lone motorcyclists went straight down the middle and flattened it.

Arse.

I met my man as planned. We sealed the deal.

I won’t really miss the tourer. I can’t remember the last time I rode it. My incredibly pointless online Daytum abacus tells me that I have ridden it 217 times since I bought it over a decade ago.

I headed back to the flat, dumped off the rather heavy Brompton bag and then set off on a Transpontine photo walk with the PEN F. My route was roughly over to Camberwell, then Brixton and back to Sunny Stockwell.

The LTN infrastructure outside Dorset Road is now finished and in place. It looks pretty smart. Camberwell was covered in a S Ldn weed fog.

The PEN F held up well. It’s a different type of photography. I’m deliberately not reviewing the shots that I take. Point, shoot, move on.

In my AirPods was the Forest On and Off the Pitch podcast, The Word on Tubular Bells, and the latest from the Deserter boys. I couldn’t cover up my laughter over a sea man joke regarding Weatherspoon’s.

To The Globe! …for the Monday evening entertainment. It may have been a little early in the season; it certainly didn’t feel like Midsummer as I watched Puck and his pals prance around at the Wooden O.

My last Globe visit was for Titus indoors at the Wanamaker a couple of months ago. I walked out at the interval, such was the painful interpretation of what should be a gorefest of a play.

Monday evening outdoors was much better. It helped that Oberon had a costume that wouldn’t have looked out of place with Ziggy Stardust.

The Globe players were two actors down. The show started around ten minutes late – something of a Globe rarity. It seemed touch and go, as one of the actors finally explained that Bottom and Hermia would be “read.”

Both stand in actors were brilliant.

There was a jazz themed angle to the production with four brass players blowing away up on the balcony.

I left three hours later with the fairy world having restored order, and L******er losing 3-0 at home to Liverpool.

All was well within my world.

To Brightlingsea! On the Raleigh electric!

Sunday morning saw the latest round of the North East Essex Walking Football Alliance (snazzy) round of games.

The bicycle ride in was lush – or more to the point, the landscape was lush. It’s all gone green, etc.

We’ve reached that point where spring is colliding head on with the joys of summer. The Estuary Wilds weather has the balance of sunshine and showers. Perfect for green shit.

I passed another recumbent descending Tenpenny Hill as I was climbing. Having raced with half a dozen at the track yesterday, I’m beginning to think that there is something of a recumbent revival taking place.

Walking football was tough. We were short through injuries; those who did play also limped on, carrying various knocks and middle age woes.

I actually felt fighting fit. I was asked to play up front, which is something of a change. The plan was to play WAY UP front and stretch the game. It had mixed results.

We played three, won none, lost one and drew two. Scoring goals in walking football is bloody difficult.

I gave the wisteria its first summer pruning back at base.

And so it begins.

It’s an absolute BEAST when it comes to sprouting green shit every week. It’s the adolescent of the plant world, displaying growth spurts at an alarming pace.

We had a brief knock up at the Table of Dreams early evening. It was the perfect weather with a stillness all around the park. A couple of hobby Bobbies stopped to watch us play. They were treated to seeing me win 3-2.

Sunday came to a close with a sunset row with WivGigs. Late high water meant we couldn’t launch until 7pm. We were chasing the light as we headed downstream and past the Creek.

Once again both boats were out on the water. The club has been thriving post-lockdown.

The whole club is experimenting with adding a brief pause to each stroke as we complete the process. This gives an extra half a second or so of gliding, plus it looks pretty cool if carried out successfully.

The seal popped up to say hello at the mouth of the estuary. We all went home smiling ever so slightly.

A decent day.

I sold the tourer bicycle overnight.

Blimey.

I’ve had it listed on eBay, FB Marketplace, as well as a few local platforms. I thought it might be a slow burner.

It waz eBay wot delivered.

And it a rather handy way as well. The buyer has paid, arrangements have been made to meet up close to Sunny Stockwell to hand it over next week.

Erm, chapeau!

I had a bit of a bicycle audit. I’ve not ridden the tourer in the past six months. There’s no need for it now I have the Raleigh electric.

One bicycle out, one bicycle in? I fell a little behind with that equation a LONG time ago.

n+1, innit.

Buzzed: Reverse Ferret from Lambeth on Central Hill as ‘regeneration’ estate set to benefit from £2m investment for new kitchens and bathrooms

“In a surprising admission, the Council acknowledges that many families living in the Central Hill Estate are currently living in substandard conditions”

The Postman Delivers: Bowie’s Space Oddity CD. That completes the run of classic albums from Space Oddity through to Let’s Dance – which is probably half a classic.

They look rather nice on the CD shelves. The spine has an old school emoji of each album cover.

I had to time trial it over to Sunny Colch for Park Run on the roadie. I was running a little late. You don’t say. It didn’t help that I got caught for five minutes at the East Hill crossing.

Too much morning porridge had been taken on board ahead of ParkRun. This weighed me down, along with what seemed like a changing wind direction at every turn.

Woh, that’s a bloody tough course.

My final time was an average 22’44”. I was second in my age cat.

More CD offers kindly came my way as I crossed the finish line. T was marshalling. She mentioned that she had a pile that I might be interested in.

Betcha.

Out went the shout of: To the Northern Gateway!

I had a spare couple of hours and fancied some track training whilst I had the roadie with me. I finally found a decent route over to the other side of town using the Velo Beeline 2.

There’s always a head wind whenever I’m riding the Northern Gateway track. The two turning points hit you every time. My speed dropped from 32kmh along the straights down to 24kmh.

Other riders included half a dozen recumbents. A couple were VERY pacy and were able to lap me a couple of times.

I put the roadie through its paces after the recent service. The new tyres held up well and were responsive. I stayed in the same gear throughout the hour.

30km were clocked up, averaging 28.8kmh. I now need to take this form back down to Herne Hill Velo.

I stopped off for a swim on the ride back to base. Toe jam was bloody everywhere in the gents. The pool felt cold. 1km later and then I retired to arse around in the spa.

I was back at base in time to listen to Forest away at Stamford Bridge, whilst watching Notts in the play off final at Wembley.

That was a bloody stressful afternoon. I’m happy with an away point for Forest; Notts are back where they belong – the division below D***y County.

Football. Bloody hell, etc.

BALLS to Eurovision, btw.

I bought a Billy Bragg ticket first thing on Friday morning.

Blimey.

I can’t remember the last time I did that. Maybe for the Roundhouse about a decade ago?

Yer man Bill is playing at the Clapham Grand at the end of the year. I can walk it there and back. It seemed rude not to take part in some nostalgia as part of the Roaring 40’s tour.

I feel a bit of a fraud as it was 37 years ago, and not 40, since I first saw Billy. He’s been a constant ever since – apart from the last decade, obvs.

I actually thought he looked rather cool and *shhh* handsome on BBCQT last week.

Album of the Day: Jefferson Airplane – Surrealistic Pillow

Hippy shit fairy music. Bad drugs. Bloody awful haircuts. No ta.

⭐

Buzzed: Hakan Hayrettin looks set to stay as Dulwich Hamlet manager as the club aims for automatic promotion back to the National League South

“Dulwich Hamlet manager Hakan Hayrettin looks set to stay at Champion Hill with the club aiming for automatic promotion from the Isthmian Premier League”

A bit more Buzzed: Lambeth invites internal departments to bid for £495k of funding to help the Council achieve Net Zero by 2030

“Brixton Buzz reported last year how Lambeth Council admitted that it is not on track to meet net zero by 2050 – let alone 2030”

The new Jetpack stats are shit btw. By default they pull up weekly figures, rather than daily. I’d even prefer hourly tbh. wtf is this? Crappy legacy media?

I tried to watch a little of The Oval action with the ‘rrey meeting up with the ‘sex.

S Ldn rain, innit.

Instead the Sky team had a half decent conversation with Stewie and Captain Grumpy talking through their t20 concerns. It’s a bit late now, fellas. That horse has already bolted.

Dotty brought in a mouse mid-shave.

Oh dear.

I was too vain to break away from my shaving routine. Ten minutes later and I managed to rescue Mr Mouse and release him in safe spot outside. Clean shaven, as well.

I caught up with some Forest Forever podcast action. There was a look back at the Southampton game, as well as a preview of Chelsea away tomorrow afternoon.

Christ, that Southampton game was bloody stressful viewing. I’m still feeling it four days later.

I managed to tackle my tax return late afternoon. That’s the earliest it’s ever been filed. I’ve had a change in the structure of my work over the past year. I wanted to firm up the tax figures with what I had anticipated would be heading my way.

I was bang on the money, so to speak.

I had to deliver some work training late in the day. I confess to always struggling with this.

We watched the Surrey highlights later in the evening. Rory is a fantastic skipper, despite the haircut.

I ended the day buying another gig ticket.

GET YOU.

Baxter Dury will have the pleasure of my company at the Roundhouse in October.

It felt like winter for most of Friday. I might hibernate for the weekend.

Buzzed: Lambeth Council considering installing utility metres in only some properties affected by huge price hike

“Lambeth Council is considering the installation of meters in only 1,300 out of the 3,500 properties affected by skyrocketing utility charges.”

Album of the Day: Circle Jerks – Group Sex

14 songs in 15 minutes. Barely enough room to breathe. The Spotify ads lasted longer. I listened to this album three times. I still wanted more. Punk’s not dead, etc. It’s available for £15 on eBay…

⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

I managed to book a spot for the Brixton Rec 5-a-side next Wednesday at the Rec. The pitch has been closed for refurbishment for the past six months or so. I’ve missed the mixed game that I stumbled on over on the footy addicts site.

The symmetry also appeals to me. I was playing Wednesday evening 5-a-side at the Rec back in ’95 when we first moved in to Brixton Hill. Almost thirty years later and the legs are still holding out, still patrolling that midfield.

Uncle Joe’s Rock Art and the X-Ray Style CD made its way to the top of the To Listen pile. Willesden to Cricklewood remains a favourite. Strummer’s post-Clash career was so overlooked. He was making albums for himself, not giving a shit and exploring new styles. It often worked well.

I sent out some eBay offers on various items I’m selling. Five minutes later and my phone pinged with news that I had made the sale on a batch of reggae 12’s. I hesitate to sell any vinyl – especially reggae 12’s. But these are bloody awful digi reggae at it worst.

Rain Watch took up most of the morning. I wanted to escape for a swim. I waited until one particularly heavy shower had passed, and then cycled around the University en route to the pool.

Christ, that was a shit swim.

There’s no such thing as a bad swim. Apart from this morning.

Look, if it said Fast Lane, then it means that it’s for fast swimmers, not walkers. I was shunted down to the general swimming space.

I thought I would be considerate and slip in along one side of the pool and do my thing, taking up very little space. But then some old moany twat got all territorial with his flappy flappy breaststroke and decided to splash into my limited space.

Back at the lovely Lido we have a name for this arsey behaviour: Pub Lunch – someone who is a bit of a Ploughman.

Knob.

I was cheered up on the return bicycle ride back to base. I passed an adult woman riding a bright pink tricycle down Boundary Road.

Chapeau, Madam!

An offer came my way for a Notts ticket for Wembley this weekend. I had considered going, but shitty engineering works has made it almost impossible.

We had an all agency AI webinar late afternoon. It was very decent with some sharing of ideas about how we can use AI in a positive way with our work. I was encouraged with the talk of workflow optimisation.

I shared the example of how I’m using Chat GPT in schools. I’ve worked out that it’s saving me at least four hours per day as part of the publishing process.

An email dropped from Table Tennis England.

Interesting.

Talk about selective marketing.

There’s interest in pitching in for Ldn to host the World Championships. I was asked to complete a questionnaire as part of the feasibility.

One of the questions asked: which player would you pay to watch at the World Championships?

I couldn’t name a professional player. I answered: Jason Cobb.

Aye.

Thursday evening was spent watching West Ham whilst listening to a Dulwich Hamlet Fan Forum that dragged on for far too long. It was a useful conversation, but the three hours could have been condensed into half that time.

I might have to optimise my workflow to get the Buzz story out in the morning.

Album of the Day: David Bowie – Hunky Dory

For some reason I use to think this was a Bowie album from the second half of the 70’s. Pulling off the feat of reinventing himself during such a short space of time is incredible. It makes this early 70’s Bowie achievement all the more spectacular. It sounds like an album from an artist who is already a star. In his own mind, he probably was.

The voice has a sorrowful lull that draws you in. There’s humour as well. But it’s the quality of the songs from a relatively unknown at the time that still stand up. Remarkable.

⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

Wednesday just happened with not a lot happening.

aka work.

The bloody Estuary Wilds weather promised sunshine and showers. I had plans to head outside briefly and capture the wisteria with the PEN F under the glaze of the sun. But the showers started whenever I was free.

I played the FGTH Sex Mix CD’s. I confess that my To Play pile is currently toppling over with around 1,000 CD’s.

Oh dear.

I’ve put the brakes on buying up anything new, unless an absolute cheapo bargain comes along – or I have a weak moment and cycle off to the ACE second hand shop in Frinton.

You need a system; everyone needs a system. My system of trying to rotate the 1k+ CD’s has clearly failed. Instead I’m focussing on one piece of music at a time. This week it’s FGTH.

There’s some great mixes on there, along with some embarrassing spoken words when they are interviewed by Paul Morley.

The divisions were evident even then. The interviews were carried out along the lines of Holly and PJ, and then The Lads.

See what they did there?

I surveyed the garden briefly. I seem to have fallen into No Mow May by mistake. I can’t be arsed to tidy all the shit up. It will be good for the bees, etc.

Goggle Cal flagged two events: The Wedding Present and then Blur at the Sunny Colch Arts Centre next week.

Blimey.

I’m not going to either, natch. I’ll be back in S Ldn, plus the minor issue of the Blur tickets being the Sunny Colch equivalent of Willy Wonka gold dust around the town / city right now.

Twenty three years ago (TWENTY THREE!) and both the Weddos and Blur played on campus at the University in the same week. We went to neither, but had tickets for Jon Fat Beast instead.

Hey hoe.

A return to walking football ended Wednesday. We played 4-a-side. It was tough work. There’s a good team spirit though ahead of the next round of competitive matches away at Brightlingsea this weekend.

And yeah – I scored.

I watched the Forest highlights first thing, just to prove that last night actually happened.

Woh.

That was some World Famous City Ground moment. I’ve gone from Forest are fucked, to Forest have a fighting chance. But there’s plenty more hard work to come. Ideally we’ll be waving farewell to L******er and DIRTY Leeds in a couple of weeks.

Album of the Day: SAULT Untitled (Black Is)

I lose track of all the SAULT albums, they’re that prolific. But I remember how Black Is dropped at the right time in 2020. It could already sound a little dated, but sadly the issues are still there. The DIY beats add an urgency. The vocals are lush. It drifts a little towards the end. An important document of 2020 though.

⭐ ⭐ ⭐

I finally got a £3.50 refund from eBay on The Fall CD that failed to turn up. That was an effort. Look after the pennies, etc. I seem to be doing a lot of looking after the pennies right now.

And with perfect timing, Strava emailed, informing me of the expected price increase. It’s now £54.99 per year – which I still think is worth it for the pro model. Comparing previous runs and bicycle rides is very pleasing.

I signed up for the pro version in a fit of rage after cancelling my Labour party membership due to to idiotic leadership. Strava’s price was pretty much on par. I’d wager that I’ve got far more joy out of Strava in the past year than I would have supporting a right wing party.

Two further emails dropped: one from Active Lambeth, one from Better. They’re the same thing: your membership is about to expire.

The whole taking of the leisure contract back in house has been a complete fuck up from a customer service POV.

Two more emails then landed from Active Lambeth, both in relation to questions I raised over a month ago. It looks like Tuesday morning was admin morning at Active Lambeth HQ.

I’ll renew the membership at the expense of the lovely Lido this season. I can’t justify swimming membership in the bloody Estuary Wilds, the Rec, the Serpentine AND the Lido. Something has to give.

The Lido gives me most joy, but it comes at a high price. The bargain £20 PER ANUM at the Serpentine will see me through the summer months when I’m not having more tattoo ink action.

I listened to the Garibaldi Red podcast reflecting on the Southampton win. It’s been great following these the morning after this season. Podcasts are perfect for making an immediate connection with a fanbase in real time.

It was a bloody pain heading out for the lunchtime swim. I didn’t want to go, but only had a spare hour and a half in the day. I knew that if I didn’t get my shit together then I would be stuck indoors.

I missed the heavy rain overnight. The water butt was full as I went to fetch my MTB from the shed. The Trail was also a heavy ride with plenty of puddle dodging.

I never really got going with the swim. It was so lethargic. I was surprised to see my Garmin clocking under 17 minutes for the 40 lengths.

Album of the Day Extra: The Rolling Stones – Let It Bleed

Finger picky music. This surprised me. I was expecting an album of rallying calls after opening with Gimme Shelter. It sounds like sessions or even outtake’s. There’s a great sax sound on Live With Me. Midnight Rambler doesn’t half drag on, mind.

⭐ ⭐ ⭐