Nine Feet Underground

The last three weeks have been fun-filled, starting with the Idler festival, a family holiday in Phuket, a week for Q and I in Bangkok, culminating in a day at the Royal International Air Tattoo at RAF Fairford. Phew! As I start writing this I have yet to think about how I'll cover all this, it may even require two posts, we crammed so much in. Q and I attended the Idler festival , starting with an overnight stay in a small hotel in Hampstead, before meeting up with our Idler friends on Friday.  Unexpectedly, we had an impromptu evening meal with son #2 and his Costa Rican gf.  This was excellent and a chance for Q and S to spend time together again. In a few days, we'll be off to Thailand together. After the meal, we bumped into some of our Idler friends who'd popped into the pub for a drink. Friday evening was the start of the festival proper, and it was great to meet up with Idler friends as well as hear a discussion between Rowan Williams (ex Archbishop of Canterbury),

Clichés. Slipping into  cliché mode is effortless, almost unconscious. My first instinct was to begin by writing 'I can't believe it's already July'. I pulled back from that by reminding myself that life is lived in seconds, minutes, hours and days.  The calendar is a human construct, though a very convenient one, especially if you want to ensure you and others arrive in the same place and at the same time.  Seasons, night and day are the true basis of everything we experience. That's how we live. What's my point? Do I have one? It simply boils down to another  cliché: be present in the moment.  Life is now, not tomorrow next week or next year.  This is it.  This needs further exploration, and I need to think more deeply before I write more on the subject. Back down to earth (!) On Saturday I attended my first gig at the Royal Albert Hall. Nick Mason's Saucerful of Secrets .  Nick Mason, as I'm sure you know, was the drummer in all incarnations of the ba