New Islington Marina

I had a fairly busy first part of the day - a guitar lesson, work, a German lesson, more work - but by two-thirty I was on the hoof, making my way to Piccadilly to meet my old friend, Ian. 

We walked along the Ashton Canal, and then settled in at The Edinburgh Castle where we met up with Simon. After a couple of drinks there, we moved onto Jane Eyre for a further pint, and then moved on to Flawd [sic], where we were joined by the Minx.

My eldest daughter, Charlie, had recommended Flawd to me as somewhere that served natural wines. The bottle we had was delicious and the price compared with what you'd pay for an average quality wine in a restaurant.

We ate at Indian Affair, which was all right. To be fair, the food was very good, but I can't bear it when places mess with the poppadoms: shards of poppadoms served with tiny portions of not very spicy chutney.