-Dave’s gone off on holiday for couple of weeks which means no chess at lunch. Of late, we’ve had some really good matches and several unexpected checkmates on both sides. I’ve actually given some small thought to finding a chess club in London and playing there for a while. I’m not a very good player but I’d like to improve.

– I’m reading Stasiland by Anna Funder. The subtitle is Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall and it’s pretty fascinating. I picked it up to read yesterday as I didn’t want to be carrying a hardback on the tube. I keep getting called to go and read one of the new books, books I have been waiting for but I can’t drag myself away from this. I hate reading two books at a time so I’m sticking with (and enjoying) this one till the end. It really is astounding how some things can still happen in this modern world of ours.

– Monday evening I took Hebe out for her night’s walk fairly late. Fairly close on 1 I’d guess. It was a lovely warm evening and she found an old burst football which of course she was quite happy to chase around for a few minutes. I was lying down looking up at the sky for a while. Some more stars would have been nice, but there was a lovely red moon. It was fairly quiet, just the background hum of the city to match my thoughts.

– Michael Chiklis sounds perfect as The Thing. I don’t think I can get excited about this movie, but if I could that would do it.