It was Mr. Bsag's birthday today, so — to distract him from his advancing years — I threw a surprise picnic for him. We must both be getting old if we prefer a picnic to a night on the tiles to celebrate, but it was really nice.

I chose 'Parson's Pleasure' — a lovely, shady bend in the river, where Oxford Dons (Professors) used to swim naked. No naked old men today, but some people were swimming. It looked very enticing in the heat (if you don't mind catching Weil's disease).

On most days, I spend the lunch hour, sandwich in hand, hunched over my computer answering email, so it was absolutely wonderful to get outside in the fresh air, eat bread and hummous and olives, listen to the sound of the water rushing over the weir, and have a nice cool weissbier. It was also nearly impossible to drag myself back inside to work again after lunch...