Jazz, Toad and Reading

Last Thursday I was in London for a meeting and then met up with my old mate Toad (not his real name). Toad and I went to the same primary school, grammar school and eventually we were each other's best man at my first wedding and his only wedding. We arranged to meet at Cambridge Circus and I found him standing below a huge silver high heel. And I mean huge maybe 20 feet or more across. It had to be the backdrop of a photo which I will put here and/or on flickr or facebook soon as I get it.

Sharing a love of jazz (Toad plays a mean Jazz piano) he and his wife Anna took me to a venue in a nearby pub, downstairs maybe 40 people at the most listening to some ace jazz. It was sublime. I didn't get the name of the band but it had piano, trumpet, double bass, drums, and sax. Very mellow. Then I walked home through the lively and warm streets of London at 11.30 to my lodgings at the Penn Club.

The next day off to an exotic conference (BAPCA) at Reading. Made some new friends including Steve from Southampton who sang with me and few others and then at 11.30 knew I needed to sleep since I had a keynote address to give on the Saturday morning. On the way back to my student hall bedroom I was waylaid by a fascinating and delightful woman whose name I never really got but she was from Sheffield and told me a lot about Kip Jones, narrative research, ecology and the like. Great fun but I was ready to sleep.

Best to all,

Bill-on-bike