Wonderful wonderful Northampton

Our house has no hot water! I couldn't have a bath this morning, and when I tried to run one this evening, despite the hot water switch having being on all day, we still had nothing. I had osteopathy in the afternoon terrified that I smelt horrible.

My day started with a journey up the M1 to Northampton. My old mate Bernie Keith wanted to talk about the wedding on his BBC radio show. He offered a telephone interview, but I don't need much of an excuse to go back to my home town. It's so odd to think that I went up and back in a morning when there were people in my class at school who had NEVER been to London. I wonder if the same would be true of Northamptonians today or if the global village we find ourselves living in makes us all more regular travellers.

Anyway, it was nice to talk to Bernie and he played the whole of the Mother's Song at the end of the interview.

On the way back to my car, I walked across Midsommer Meadow and noticed, on the other side of the canal there, a little ramshackle building marked "Northampton Sea Cadets." Northampton is famous as the UK town furthest away from any coast, so one wonders what these poor cadets get up to! Do they imagine the sea? Pretend to be in boats? Or does the grubby canal double up as a harbour? It may not be tidal, but water is water.

I've been completing the sixth draft of Brass today, which I've given to Nathan to read. It'll be his first time reading the script so he better not be too harsh!

This evening we went out to dinner in Highgate with Matt and talked a lot about his new project. He's making a situation comedy which won't feature a single actual word. A sort of cross between Mr Bean and Pingu, which sounds deeply intriguing.