An excellent session from the fresh faced and charmingly named Gentle Friendly helped to lift me somewhat from my post-mayoral election depression. GF make a magnificent noise with some great equipment, including a really nice old Jen organ, which they rescued from an old people's home and which Daniel plays while drumming at the same time. Very impressive. I was also cheered up by Robin's brief but welcome return to the fold, celebrated with a backrub from Ean.
Last night I was on the Chelsea team at Yara El-Sherbini's Universality Challenge at the Chelsea Theatre. There was a routemaster bus parked outside so perhaps I was a little premature in my lack of faith in Bo-Jo. Then again, it didn't move all night so perhaps not. My team-mates were Garry (Chelsea - Rutter!), Layla and a theology student called Patrick, who we hadn't met before, but who turned out to be the star of the team. Our opponents were the actual SOAS team who appeared on University Challenge this year, beating Magdalen College Oxford, so they clearly knew their onions. Just seeing my surname in lights activated by pressing a buzzer was reward enough for me, but we also got £20 and free booze and sandwiches! Yara was a great quizmistress with some very amusing questions and miraculously we even knew the answers to a few of them. Even more unexpectedly we ended up winning somehow, despite not knowing the difference between a shepherd's pie and a cottage pie.
Spent most of today dossing about the flat before finally mustering the energy for a stroll up to the Thames, where the tide was remarkably low...waiting for Boris to command it which way to flow no doubt.
