everything today has been second best (and in some instances this ment worst), but i feel quite tired so i might just go to bed early and prepare to face the dawn. perhaps the most galling of my near misses was finding out by way of the evening standard that smog played in london tonight just as my train pulled out of london bridge. i didnt buy the paper you understand, i found it.

well, no direction home raises more questions than answers, and thankfully i think most of the answers are lies anyway. i wonder what b. s. johnson would make of dylan cutting songs out of novels, and what i would make of myself if i got my way all the time. i should say i would make rather less than i do, but it would be more concentrated; i could conduct my own personality bleeding a la margaux (i am sure there is some posh french word for the process of pouring off grape must so as to concentrate the exposure of the remainder to the "cap" when making red wine, but i am damned if i know it off the top of my tired head).

another jolly fun weekend. saturday night i went to a party in a shoreditch bar in order to send off laura in style, and this time i managed to stay with the group all the way to leighton road. no signs of freja though, which is hopefully attributable to a fondness for norwich rather than anything sinister. today saw more fun - i met a resident of linkopping for a delicous bagel and had a few wonderful cups of ethiopian coffee with may. i also might get a new non-tweed coat.

yesterday i was thinking of how a really good thing about bob dylan is the way that he sings. many a time i have heard him criticised for not reeeaaleeyy singing but just talking and so on, and then i realised that he is like a rapper; like kanye in particular. both grew up looking out onto the same lake. what more can i say. went out last night in sevenoaks, but i just ended up with no intentions and a fist full of tacks in a working mens club so i went home.

this morning i had the pleasure of a free ft, and it really got me excited about the forthcoming documentary about bob dylan. i for one am having it put on dvd, but i shall endeavor to watch it next week. all is generally well enough for me right now: i am ready to be an unknown for a while but i am looking forward to exploring my new neighborhood.

lots of jolly fun on saturday, if you didn't make it you lost out. come to think of it, if you weren't wandering around shoreditch on your own you missed out on something. i shall be spending much of the next two weeks on trains, and today i found an amusement. i can read tom jones at the same time as meditating on a line of jay-z (out of the frying pan and into the fire for today), so that walking home i could try lyrical variations and riff on the flow.

nice enough dinner at roussillon just done, i shall appraise you of my day. for the first time since my departure for edinburgh almost a month ago, i woke up with the feeling that i had better just stay in bed and think for a bit. i once heard someone (smog?) talking about the moment when you just wake up and you haven't yet remembered that you are dan or whoever you are being the best of the day. i drank some coffee, met with the bank manager and then watched kent on tv. at dinner, as ever the cheese was the best thing, though tonight sweatbreads and artichoke gave it a damn good run. see you tomorrow, maybe.

went to london today with twin aims. i went on the eye which is quite good. if i were to go again i should hire my own pod as taking pictures of germans is less fun than looking at the gerkin from a great height. second aim was to look at a venue for celerations this weekend and it looks lovely. i shall try to be there about 730ish so come then if you want to sit as it is hilariously small. on my way past, i picked up on the airplane over the sea in rough trade, and it is very good. buy it before it goes out of print on vinyl again.

well done everyone, i think that by putting up with my occasional rants about cricket you have all contriubuted to this glorious revolution. now lets hope everyone shuts up about it on radio 4. i have put a new thing on the comments to stop machines getting involved, but pay it no heed. i am going to tunbridge wells today, heaven knows what it may hold for i do not.

get in.

when a man is tired of the ashes he is tired of life and there have been many times today when, sick with caffine and irritated by some passing trifle, i have walked around the house with a book in my hand rather than watch or listen. i am tempted to write some rather unsavoury things about matthew hayden. insted i will content my self with saying that saturday is a curates egg in the ear and that i am rather disinclined to read any more books by ian macuan excpet perhaps his first. nice to be reminded of playing squash though.

on todays much trailed walk i had recorse to talk on my phone in the park for the third time this holiday, which was great. then at dinner i was reminded of the imminent plans to wi-fi estonia. we should do it here (though i will leave the related flat tax issue to george osborne and my kid brother). soon i will tread on those small black stones. soon, but not yet.

i am glad that soon (hopefully tomorrow) i will be able to get out of the house and go for a walk. sitting on a bed watching UKTV food is all well and good, but it is tiresome. i know i should read my book, but i have never mastered the art of reading in bed. that every one is obessed with the ashes irks me, it makes me wish to pay the play no mind, but of course this is impossible and i will spend all day tomorrow ritually making espresso and yearning for another 50 runs/wicket (delete as approprite). i might bet on the st leger though, to raise my spirits.

an unexpected general anesthetic is a funny thing, full of peculiar sensations, none unpleasant but all strangely memorable. anyway, i am home, eating heartily and doing quite well all things considered, but for a pain in my neck (not my brother this time!*)

*sorry, i had to do a pain in the neck joke.

busy day, what! parents return, talking all the time and so on. i go to the docs and am for it tomorrow. still, it is all to quiet my mind. what? i have a new house on searles street. 15 minutes to work. closer to play. goodnight.

what a wonderful world. last night saw a bit of a booze up with collegues and then goro, so i awoke this morning with something of a start when the alarm fired. the house walls are distinctly larger this weekend as i am quite alone. i was free to doze at will and no such stolen joy has become me for some time. i think i am going to read the ft (it is a how to spend it day!) and then go for a long walk.