I wandered lonely in a crowd

They were thoroughly absorbed. Apart from the ones on their smart phones. And those on child care duty. Or the two people playing giant chess, the pieces of which are below the hedge line. Or the tall man in the top right hand corner who is in fact a statue. Or the people standing in groups talking to their mates.

For the record Federer aged 37 beat Nadal aged 33 in a thrilling Wimbledon semi. A journalist commented that "the younger generation has yet to break through in any meaningful way". They’d better get on with it or these two will still be slugging it out when they are in their ‘50s.

Warning: self indulgent introspection ahead. Don’t read on unless you find the pondering of a sixty year old snowflake of interest.

Exhausting day. I only went into town to collect my steroids but was tired by then from fighting with Pants Monster and fitting together a large self assembly shoe cupboard. Here’s hoping for a rapid turnaround, although steroids won’t help the mental state and I suspect psychological factors are nudging ahead of physical ones in determining my wellbeing at the moment. I do feel very flat and often find myself staring into space or really having to work at my communications with other people. For me getting mildly depressed is on one level like a bad quality old-fashioned international telephone call where meaning is muffled and there seems to be a delay in the words getting through, producing a slightly hypnotic sense of alienation.

It was a lovely evening. TSM and I sat out eating supper and playing kalooki until it got dark, at which point I went into garden stewardship mode and made six trips around the flower beds with my big red watering can, I have reached an age and a stage when I whisper to the plants as I go, and even apologise to the weeds for pulling them up, which probably means I need to get out more. I am in danger of becoming like one of God’s Gardeners from the MadAdam trilogy, and in truth do spend a lot of time thinking about the forthcoming apocalypse and what form it will take. Although I say forthcoming; most days it feels like it has already started.

Never mind, the media are keeping us entertained whilst civilisation collapses. The seas may be full of plastic, the food full of toxins and the atmosphere full of CO2 but at least on Sunday you can choose between the cricket World Cup final, Federer vs Djokovic at Wimbledon or formula 1 Grand Prix. I wonder if they will put the end of the world on a big screen in our local town centre? Reserve your deckchair now ...