In the library again, and this time in my lunch hour!! so this will be necessarily brief...

Starting to enjoy Cambridge again... wandering to work is nice as I'm working in the historical centre which is loaded with attractive buildings, sculture and very nice shops... last night went to the arts cinema to see Dead Man's Shoes and excellent British film ...very very British, very dark and disturbing... there was a question and answer session at the end with the director which is always interesting to listen to mostly about the film's background and raison d'etre.... so had wine with old buddy Lisa .... excellent to catch up indeed.... though quite looking forward to actually being at home tonight! A night in !

Work is actually interesting too... all very acronym full... and so jargonistic I feel I am sitting in on a foreign language class at times!!!! Have been given my old user name from when I was a student here and when they finally get my log-in up and running I wonder if I'll have some ancient emails sitting waiting for me to read.. bit odd really being on the other side of the place !!! Trying to look a bit smarter at work but not really succeeding....

Saturday's Greenpeace action was good fun.... but must learn to do the whole moderation thing as far as wine intake goes.. particularly now I have to get a late train back to Cambridge!!! and it would help the memory too as it all got a bit blurred around the edges....

Cambridge! Well it's quiet, the sun has been shining beautifully, tempting me to get outside, sit along the river and drink a bit of rose whilst turning a matching pink! But I have resisted, mostly, and have been trying to make the flat vaguely habitable again... slow and very grubby work indeed! Quite remarkable how complete the deterioration has been! and I am at times doubtful that I can make it a 'home' again... Had a new front door put in yesterday which has been a vast improvement.. feel secure and as if I am making a difference.. plus I can now face cooking in the kitchen again as I have spent two solid days cleaning it!!

had an odd night Tuesday when I met J& J to watch the football... played pool afterwards and then somehow found myself having a coggy back to Max's mansion... dead odd! J (i) and i scuttled away fairly soon after having a viewing of the stuffed wild boar's head and being introduced to M's mother! Trouble is once I've had a couple of beers I am 17 again... and totally forget that a woman in her mid-forties generally doesn't ride on the back of a bicycle being peddled by a 20 year old.. then sneak into friend's house after his parents have supposedly gone to bed, only for a parent to get up to greet son and friends...God knows what she thought!

Reading Festival aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! Yes!

Only had a day ticket so was there for the Saturday only, at first I was really happy about this as stories of dire amounts of mud were all over the news pages before we went. But by the end of the evening I sooooo wished I had a tent there and with it the possibility of seeing Graham Coxon, Green Day, Offspring.......

Anyway the line up for Saturday looked pretty good! Arrived as Razorlight came on.... having never been to Reading before I was utterly taken aback by it's size. Somehow I had expected something BIG and yet it was really just one main arena with a couple of other stages..... in fact there was tons of stuff going on outside the arena....which is really unusual for festivals as generally only ticket holders get to join in the fun!! Here you could actually put up a tent, do your festival shopping, join in with the air guitar competition and hear all the main acts for nothing!

Hmm Razorlight were utterly spoiled by their prat of a lead singer.. the music wasn't too bad but Johnny Borell was very full of himself and played the part of the ultimate rock star......... climbing down from the stage to touch his audience was an act too far for the first band of the day!!!!!! Then came The New York Dolls!!!!! Lead singer looked like a Mick Jagger/Lou Reed mix.. a combination that reflects a life of hard drugs, vast quantities of alcohol and maybe a bit of rock and roll thrown in! They did a version of Don't go breaking my heart' which had everyone joining in, well the few people who were at the front of the stage anyway... maybe most had gone off to do their shopping at this point!?! Sad as they missed a really good band... Franz Ferdinand did a good set.. although Sarah and I realised that they were actually a cloned band with all the members being fairly indistinguishable... The Libertines tried really hard without Pete Doherty but didn't get there for me, the vocals just didn't have any errrr umph! Carl Barratt looked cute but lacked a bit!

By this time Sarah and I had supped some ale, danced, sung, and talked to a pile of brand new friends... and the White Stripes came on. I was slightly distracted.. The W S's were good but we had to hike it for the last train... sadly leaving a whole pile of good music, good people and excellent quality mud behind