Out of the loop

We're having a heat wave but I'm sorting of missing it. When you work in an air conditioned office it passes you by. It's a bit like when everyone is talking about a tv series that you are not following. You may have caught half of the first episode but then couldn't get along with it. I'm not wearing a coat, that's one change but I'm loving my lunch hour because it allows me to get the sensation back in my shoulders which have been shot blasted by air con.

Hear the drummer get wicked

About this time every summer I get a bit of a thing for dance music. It normally comes before Brighton Pride. Anyway, you can set your clock by it. It passes and I normally slip back into Classic FM but at its highest point the car rattles and little children scatter on my approach. In fact, were it a BBC wildlife programme in glorious HD the money shot would be my head doing beats like a nodding dog. It's not big, it's not clever, it's your dad dancing.

Oh sit down

I'm sat crossed legged in the garden trying to clean out my chakras. A song thrush is looking at me probably chirping 'will you just f#ck off!'. I remember once as a kid I sat on a football pitch when the heavens opened. There was no one around and so I remained there and slowly became soaked. I often think of it and can still feel the water running down my face and the joy of walking home with squelching shoes. It's a beautiful evening, the thrush is still giving me evils and there is no suggestion of rain more's the pity.

What a plonker

I have a bit of a skills gap when it comes to wine. A mild panic comes over me. I know what I want but a kind of snowblindness hits me when I see all the bottles. French, don't like the French so they can go swing, Argentina? Are we still at war? South Africa, it's ok to buy now that they've freeeeeeee'ed Nelson Mandela. Thank goodness then that Sue know's her way around the new world by way of the old world, round the cape of good grape. Like one of those middle England housewifes who have a husband who sees to all the complicated household stuff I scuttle off and 'do food' when we hit the supermarket leaving Sue to come back with a bottle under each armpit. Only today she wasn't with me. It being a bit autumnal I thought, red wine, I can do this I thought, I know what to do. As a general rule of thumb anything under a fiver is paint stripper and anything over a tenner is for a Saturday night and this being Sunday I had to hit in the middle. Avoid 'special offers' and 'fun labels' and Blossom Hill because that's all you win on a tombola that I do know. I've walked out with Villa Maria from New Zealand, Merlot 2011 at £7.99 (plonk). But, like a husband who has to pack for himself for a holiday, it's probably highly inappropriate - the equivalent of socks with sandals.

Action

Saw the tell tale fluorescent signs today of a filming location not far from where I live. It was pink and the letters 'PI' were on it. What can it be, what can it be? I thought. Round our way the wife and I often see the signs, MM - that's easy, Midsomer Murders and we are forever seeing blockbusters being filmed in Burnham Beeches on our occasional fly tipping expeditions, we once saw an area with artificial snow in the middle of June - fancy.