Looking back, July seems to be a month where I got out more than usual but also managed to do a lot more indoors things as well. I don’t understand how that works.

Jayne and I got to go out together a few times because her shift pattern was kind to us this month, and some some of her weekend days off coincided with reasonable weather. We had a ride down to the Harley Davidson place in East Sussex to get her bike serviced, had a day out in Hampshire visiting the daughter, and went out to Surrey for the launch of a new charity. I also had quite a few trips out on my own. A couple of those were to record fairs, but most were medical related local errands.

Last month I got the results back from a lung cancer screening CT scan which showed me all clear for cancer but picked up some artery issues. Because of that I had to go down to the GPs to get some blood taken and some ECG tests, then I had to go to the hospital to get more blood taken because they missed out the cholesterol test, and then there was another trip to pick up a huge pile of prescriptions. I’m so glad they are free for me now!

I don’t think its anything to panic about for now, but it looks like I am facing a future full of statins. Mind you, this month also saw Jayne and I finally get our will sorted out, so either way I am sorted.

I do have to confess that one of my visits to a record fair involved me taking the car instead of the bike, but it was absolutely pissing down and I am not a complete maniac.

The other big news of the month was that I got myself a little holiday booked, after a lot of persuasion from Jayne. I am going to go to Madrid for a few days, because I have long had the urge to visit the Escorial palace and the Prado to see the Velazquez paintings, but while I am there I should take the opportunity to see the Picasso and Dali stuff in the other museum. After booking I found out that Madrid zoo has giant pandas, so I’m going to try and squeeze that in as well.

I have kept my average of reading 7 to 9 books, so more than I planned to, but have kept to my intention to read more non-fiction because amongst the usual crime and time travel fiction I managed a book on architecture (disappointing in Kindle format with no illustrations) and an actual paper book about Yes. That is as many non-fiction books as I managed in the whole of 2024! I also downloaded quite a few non-fiction/autobiography books, so have enough to keep me going for a few months. All the fiction I read was by new (to me) authors, rather than the usual suspects whose bibliographies I am starting to exhaust, and most of them were good enough that I have immediately downloaded a few more of. Only one was so bad that I regret reading it.

Best of all, I watched a load of TV, by my standards. I binged all of Dept Q on Netflix, then all of the last season of Bosch:Legacy and the first series of Ballard on Amazon. On top of that I watched four whole films:

• Heads of State (2025)
  Very watchable nonsense, with Idris Elba as the UK PM and John Cena as the US President.
• The Accountant 2 (2025)
  A fun sequel. More exciting than the title suggests, and with a lot more gunplay.
• The Avenger (2024)
  An extraordinarily disappointing film featuring cliche upon cliche in a plot that really doesn’t hang together very well. But at least it is short.
• The Locksmith (2023)
  The sort of title that makes you expect Jason Statham to be in it. But he isn’t. No complaints about the film itself, but the closed caption sub-titles were amusingly bad.

The month started well, with a £225 win on the Premium Bonds and kept me occupied with plenty of new music, books and TV, and plenty of chances to get out on the bike. The icing on the cake was the completion of the roadworks on Manor Royal.