I arrived early to meet S for lunch and spotted her with a group of other people. So for ten minutes I went into the large tropical fish shop nearby that I've cycled past for 30 years and never gone inside. I don't often think about fish lives but today's experience has given me an extra reason for disliking the domestication of other living beings (OK, I know I've now alienated about 97% of you). A notice on this tiny tank said that these fish came from Lake Malawi. Imagine being netted out of that vast expanse of warm water, transported to the UK and put into this constraining space. Maybe a fish brain wouldn't know what it was missing but...

When Firstborn was three months old I was taken into hospital and he slept in a cot next to me. When he woke in the night the nurses would take him to look at the fish tank. From then on he was transfixed by the fish in our near-to-home tropical fish shop. When he was 2, and I was serving fish for lunch, he asked me whether eating fish stopped them swimming. I told him the truth and he pushed his plate away. He's been vegetarian ever since.

......

On my way home I went to look at the new bouldering place that opened in May in the car park behind my garden. These are the people I was negotiating with for deliveries to my building site while they were converting their building from offices to the bouldering centre. They've offered near neighbours some free climbs to compensate for the disruption but it was instantly clear that I have neither the strength nor the agility to take them up on that offer. Brilliant to see others stretching themselves, though.