"Shall I compare thee to a summers day?"

"You can, but I would rather be in Hay".

Inspired by Helena Bonham Carter and Dominic West I fell to the floor and attempted to reproduce a romantic Shakespearean gesture. This was prompted by a splendid afternoon at the Hay digital festival which began with a remarkable dissection of Britain’s presence in India under (initially) the auspices of the East India company and latterly the British Raj. During this period millions of Indians died as a result of war famine and misrule. Not only that, the sub-continent’s culture and heritage was looted and much of it is still available to tourists in British attractions such as Powys castle, a National Trust property not far from Hay. William Dalrymple gave a visceral account of the three hundred or so years involved and made a compelling case for re-education and re-contextualisation.

Next up was Roman Krznaric who gave a very impassioned account of the impending fate of humankind if it did not plan longer term and with greater duty of care towards future generations. Our frontal lobes need to get their act together and start thinking ahead was the basic message.

As for the Shakespeare ...brilliant. Beautifully curated by Allie Asiri, a real feast for the eyes and ears.

As for the rest of the day ... we didn’t get a new fridge (long story involving bad communication by the supplier and recalcitrant delivery men) but the weather was good and work continued on the garden project. We have renamed the cafe at the bottom of the garden; it is now called The Qwerky Cafe and has much enlarged and more attractive premises.

The Dizzle and Mystic Em cooked an excellent vegan lasagna for supper and we chatted as the sun went down. Strider was in excellent form and was enjoying some banter about use of language, this on the importance of capitals: "there is a world of difference between the phrases ‘helping your uncle Jack off a horse’ and ‘helping your uncle jack off a horse’ ...."

A long and rather lovely video chat with The Girl Racer who is bristling with ideas and conversation and who looks amazingly healthy and lovely. Her and TSM had a lengthy discussion about their current good reads.

The Dizzle saw the Spacex Dragon rocket briefly as it sped south west along the horizon later. We took a glass of whisky outside on the green and checked out the night skies with my stargazer app. Historic stuff, he was very happy and it was a joy to see. Oh and we saw the International Space Station, it really shifted along the horizon.

Good day.