A bumper trip to Lake Windermere this time. We had a meeting at the crack of dawn in Bolton which obviously, after a cruelly early start, did not start on time. And then, as we will be in the Lakes for the next two days, we drove up to Lake Windermere so I’ve spent a very arduous night sitting around on the hotel lawn which leads down to the Lake and then in various beer gardens /restaurants drinking drinking in the sun with my two faithful colleagues. It’s not such a bad job sometimes.

An early start after a lovely weekend. I spent an hour and a half tieing strings onto balloons for the parade which launches the Jazz Festival on Saturday. The parade missed the Pipers Trail by a cat’s whisker. The Pipers Trail is an initiative conceived by the Army to boost flagging recruitment. I did not see much evidence of recruitment activity but the ‘Trail’ was impressive enough.

Then the Grassmarket handing out brochures for the Jazz Fest to the accompaniment of some thumping blues band. And the day culminated in a reunion trip to Alex / Mme de Merteuil’s house to watch the Oscar deprived John Malkovich and Glenn Close pouting at each other. She’d set up a projector like an angel so we could all cluster round and watch it.

And much as the film (again, David) seemed dated, I could only marvel at the performances of the leads. And the simpering blandly wide-eyed face (easy for permanent-face-of-horror-me to say) of Michelle. We all watched and quietly mouthed our lines to ourselves. Though maybe (surely not) others are less self-centred than me and just appreciated the overall spectacle.

Sunday a day of chores but I say that very self-pityingly and I did manage a lot of practical stuff but also squeezed in late lunch with one long-lost and one more recently seen friend at Bruntsfield in the faltering sunlight and then Batman of the Dark Knight which was a genuinely excellent film. Brilliant script. Great acting. Super effects. That is how a twisty-turny thriller should be.