(Imagine I wrote this on Friday just gone for in fact I did, I just could not post it then.)

I don’t even know if this is true but a Dundee taxi driver told me yesterday that today is the Summer Solstice. And that this is the first time it hasn’t fallen on the 21st June since 1975. (The year of my birth for all those that don’t know me. And he must have been right because google offers a bright sun in its second “o” today.)

I love the Summer Solstice, purely for being the longest day and so the most sunlit of the year. The fact that it’s downhill from here, light-wise, I shall overlook. Particularly since I’ve been waking up at ten to five for the past week, clearly subliminally wishing to enjoy these lengthened days.

So it seemed fitting that I should spend the evening (after a ratty ratty day) in the pub at the end of my street with my dear Siobhan after several cups of gin and cucumber. More fitting still that I discover that the manageress of the pub at the end of my street used to manage a favourite pub of mine in Leith.

And we gobbled burgers and Camembert and some kind of mushy onion chutney thing along with a fair quantity of the least chilled Pinot Grigio you could ever hope to meet as we set the world to rights and the Summer Solstice sun set over the sparkly sea.

Happy summer, everybody.