Lunch of Kings

Day of South Sudan logistics, planning and trip preparations with some of my colleague Debbie's exceedingly strong coffee to bring me out of the fug I woke up in.

Lunch with Hannah in the sun on the wall next to Kings College looking stunning under a cloudless blue sky, followed by shopping for a pick-me-up for her hubby whose bike was vandalised last night. I can understand someone in a desperate enough situation to steal something. To simply trash something for the hell of it raises my outrage levels into the cloudless blue sky.

Collected some Labour window posters from the local campaign office. Now proudly displayed.

Caved and went to the Cambridge beer festival after neglecting it in the several years I've lived here. The city goes ga-ga over it and it's definitely the highlight of many people's social calendar. The ale counters have the air of a Subway joint where you're judged if you take more than three seconds to convey your order. Simon the Deputy Cider Manager could tell I was more of a Strongbow and black man but humoured me and served a strong hoppy cider that I nursed all night alongside Berry and Helen and a sweet potato pie.

Continued to receive advice on blinds from Marie at John Lewis. Marie was pragmatic about not wasting money on flamboyant curtains. Until a year ago she worked as a midwifery lecturer at Anglia Ruskin University after starting in hospitals, but had to quit due to stress. Now she's peddling curtains and feels less stressed, but we both lamented the loss of midwifery expertise within the NHS system.

Final flourish of the day was writing an agenda for one of our refugee meetings this week.

Not a bad day all told.