Royal Oak

After a brief wet interlude, it's back to very pleasant summer sunshine here. The fire is now out on Saddleworth moor

I don't care much for Roy Keane, he's like Geoff Boycott in cricket. What some people consider blunt and refreshing, I feel is just a front for not actually having anything particularly interesting or insightful to say. Anyway, England, it was nice while it lasted.

It actually rained this evening in Manchester, for about 30 seconds.

My red Acer palmatum has been dropping odd leaves for a couple of weeks now, which has never happened before. Fortunately, a fairly mature specimen, so I think he'll make it.

Still shmokin' hot here in Manchester. Still allowed to wear shorts at work, England still in the World Cup. We have entered a parallel universe

Well that was stressful. Won't be falling asleep for an hour or two yet.

I like this album, but the copy I have is a bit "hot" so I don't listen very often. Now listening to:

"Recado Bossa Nova" is a shoe-in, surely?

A victory for common sense! We've been allowed to wear shorts at work this week too, first time in my 31 years of work. Still boiling in Manchester btw

Manchester bus drivers complaining at not allowed to wear shorts is now a Manchester Evening News headline.

Was just about to post that Sidewinder. Sounds fairly grim, described on Manchester Evening News website as the "biggest fire in living memory"

So, you're in Manchester then?

We'll be talking about the Summer of 1976 before long. Another utterly glorious day in Manchester today

I am exercising my right, as a British person, to talk about the weather. Here in the UK, we are officially experiencing a heatwave. There does seem to have been an extraordinary amount of sunshine over the last two months, certainly in Manchester. My garden soil, a usually waterlogged heavy clay, is now dry as a bone, with large cracks appearing on the surface. I haven't seen those for several years. Weeds are unable to cope, which is a pleasant side-effect, and I appear to be in line for a nice crop of tomatoes, which as often as not rot and blight in the damp conditions. The lawn is growing slower than usual, and is getting a bit brown in places. It will recover, I'm sure. Work is a bit uncomfortable, but I'll take it over grey, muggy conditions any day.

I see Rene Higuita and Carlos Valderrama are still sporting exactly the same haircuts as they did in 1994

I've never seen that album before, looks a nice line up

Bit of an impulse buy for £3, as the cover looked interesting! Listening for the first time earlier this evening, I experienced quite the feeling of deja entendu. Perhaps not the actual compositions, but certainly the vibe of the music. I googled Gerhard and see he worked for the BBC a lot, so I guess it's snatches of TV from childhood. Quite evocative.

How do you feel it's aged? I really didn't like the first track (son said it sounded like the soundtrack to a Wii game), though I quite liked the album as a whole, by the end of it. I'm not sure it will get much action however

6 games watched so far this weekend, with one more yet to come. Looking forward to the country grinding to a halt tomorrow after work.

Great is probably a bit strong. It's the most 1980s-sounding thing imaginable, with that nasty electronic drum beat. The inner sleeve is a reproduction of part of a comic strip drawn by Wayne in 1949. Still, it's Wayne Shorter, for £1

Sorry to derail your thread somewhat, Steve.

"Jazz mags" - fnarr fnarr (UK members only reference)

A slightly rough original copy. The stuff you find at car boot sales

Watermelon is a fairly recent visitor to British shores, I think, unless we just never had it in the house when I was a kid. When I first tried it, I found it a little tasteless, compared to the Honeydew or Canary melon I was used to. I prefer Watermelon now, the other stuff is too sweet. I wouldn't dream of salting it, however. JSngry talks about adding sugar to berries - we used to do that with strawberries all the time in my choldhood. Seems a bit vulgar now