Not one but three joys.

1. My mate Frank, on the left of the picture, is in heaven. It's his 50th birthday party and who has he got to play at it??? None other than his hero Mik Artistic! This is the kind of coup we want.

2. If I can upload some extras with my ancient ipad; we went to Walthamstow Garden Party to watch Alice take part in a drumming display. She hasn't been doing it for long, and only learned her parts in the morning. She did well and it was a pretty powerful display.

3. Before we saw Alice, me and Clare nipped into the most amazing hardware/ironmongery shop called Wakefields, on the Lea Bridge Road. The place is crammed with anything you could possibly want, most of it on display in 15,000 little wooden boxes. Yes 15,000. The were all hand made by Mr Wakefield in the 1920s when he opened the shop. Visit and use this place before it disappears in the crushing wake of the evils of big boys like b and q or screwfix.