It was a bit manic today.  Charlie needed to go to hospital to have his hand looked at, but it was a very short-notice appointment.  I decided to drop him off there on my way to work, rather than have him take a one-hour bus ride or the train; just to make sure he got there OK as much as anything.   So I went to work via Horsham hospital, eventually reaching my desk at about 9.

Everyone else was in a minor panic, thinking I was maybe not coming in.  When the boss asked why I didn’t phone to say I would be in late I had to point out that we are on flexi-time and I just chose, for once, to arrive at the late end of our range of start time rather than the early end.  It not that I am indispensible or anything, I think its just that everyone is used to me already being there when they turn up – I know I am.  It threw me out for the whole half day, not being able to mentally prepare myself for the day ahead, deal with a few e-mails, etc. before everyone else is around.

After work I went over to Halfords to look at bikes.  I am probably going to go for a Carrera Vulcan and then spoil the effect by having mudguards and a rear pannier, but now I know how much to ask for from the cycle2work scheme – £400 to £450 to allow for all those accessories.  Must make a point of doing all the paperwork on Monday, because the scheme only runs until Friday.

After that I went to soak up the misery while having an afternoon breakfast in the cafe at Broadfield.  The misery was all due to the establishment being resolutely Portugese.  I think they were all still suffering the emotional fallout from getting kicked out of the Euros by the Germans.

Highlight of the day was finding out that Chrystal is going to take me to see Paul Weller at K2 in Crawley. Apparently Radio Mercury were running some sort of competition and she had to approach somebody in the town centre to get the tickets.  Brilliant.  I had been thinking about getting tickets for this show, and now I’m glad I was slow in getting around to it.