I met up with Luke and had a pleasant time despite his being out of sorts with the world. But that was OK and the sport was decent enough.
And now my world is swinging away from high summer once more and towards the autumn equinox.
I may, however, have found my life's motto.
In my defence,
I was left unsupervised.
It’s strange to think that we all exist because one day two people got jiggy together. But it becomes even more miraculous than that if you start pushing that notion further. Those two people relied on the jigginess of two more people each before them and those four and so on...
After 25 generations, taking us back to the time of King John and Magna Carta, some 67,108,862 people (barring the odd incestuous lapse) are involved in our appearance on this mortal plane.
And, if just one of those 67 million had had a headache or had been called elsewhere at the appointed hour of fateful conception, the world would have been a very different place.
I met up with Luke and had a pleasant time despite his being out of sorts with the world. But that was OK and the sport was decent enough.
Once of the Brexit consequences which keeps cropping up and then dying back again is the whole "taking back control of our borders" thing which no-one has yet persuaded me is anything other than a disguised version of keeping Johnny Foreigner out of our green and pleasant land. We don't want to have those meetings even if we depend upon them for the quality of our lifestyles.
Fear of the immigrant has been a background to my life from the casual racism of my early years to present day pushing back against multi-culturalism.
Our fears about invasion and lack of assimilation are however well founded. It's only what we have done to others after all.
I met up with Matt and Kyle. They had good sport of one another. I did not feel as though I wanted to join in and so I did something I've never done before and I started to film them both with my phone. The chance to channel my inner Spielberg ticks off another item off my sexual bucket list. The two of them have Only Fans accounts and so my filming will shortly be available to a world-wide audience. Both commented that I have a steady hand. Hem.
There are some lovely blue flowers in our garden at this time of year.
Ross and I took another of our Lucky Dip trips and this time we found ourselves bidden to visit Broom's Cross. Our previous trip to Saint Helen's Well was something of a disappointment as the site was not well kept. Neither was this. Our goal was so hidden away within a clump of undergrowth that we walked past it to begin with. Then, we weren't exactly charmed when we did find it. The very basic concrete cross marks a sandstone base (pretty much invisible under the foliage) on which a medieval wayside cross once stood. The history is far more interesting to read about than the site itself.
A highlight, however, was a traditional sight of the English rural landscape at this time of the year. A farmer ploughing a field in advance of planting either a late crop for this year or an early crop for next with the tractor being followed by a cloud of wheeling birds eager to get at the juicy worms that were being turned up. We decided we needed a treat after all that excitement and, at Ross's suggestion, went for coffee and cake at The Courtyard in Little Crosby.
I get occasional text messages from the dentist on behalf of my mum who, at 92, has one remaining tooth in her head. There are useful ones like the one reminding us of her appointment in 10 days' time and then there are less useful promotional ones like the recent one entitled...
I liked this operatic jest about washing machines and Wagner's Ring Cycle.
And it seems as though a politician's words will seldom meet with the truth.
This could be a description of Charles I. It was certainly among the reasons for starting a Civil War.
A man with no mandate seeks to cancel parliament for fear it will stop him inflicting on an unwilling public an outcome they did not vote for and do not want.
It's not, however. It's Jolyon Maugham QC's view of Boris Johnson's current actions. He goes on to say...
That's certainly not democracy and I expect our courts to say it's not the law.
On top of that it seems that both Sajid Javid and Boris Johnson have spoken out against prorogation when it suited their purpose to do so but are now both equally convinced that it is the right thing to do.
As a consequence, there were many protests held up and down the country today. This is Liverpool, by the Wellington Memorial. There's a decent few hundred people present despite the torrential rain an hour beforehand. Among them is Kamal, mate and former colleague, who took this photo.
The location is somewhat ironic as Wellington was hardly a champion of civil liberties: he was roundly booed by crowds at the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway for his opposition to the Reform Bill.
I do hope that the crowd have all been told that the new leader of UKIP is called Richard Brain. Hmmm. That's Dick Brain. I think that that news should cheer them up enormously.