Marshals

I dashed across the city to Carl's place to watch today's Monaco Grand Prix. Of all the races in the F1 calendar, this is the one which my friend Niall looked forward to most of all. We spoke about it all on Thursday while we said our good-byes, and decided that it was too soon after his death to think about anyone actually hosting a GP lunch today. As we all watched it separately, I'm sure we all remembered him many times during the race.

There'd been talk yesterday of the possibility of rain, which, generally speaking, is the only thing which prevents the race in Monte Carlo from turning into a bit of a procession (and, unfortunately, was the way in which I saw the circuit back in 2008). While the rain didn't materialise, the race produced a fair share of incidents, with the safety car being deployed four times and Michael Schumacher promoting himself up a place thanks to a cheeky move as the safety car pulled in at the end of the final lap (he's since been penalised for that, but I'd expect that decision to be reversed on appeal). Mark Webber qualified first and finished first, both for the second time in succession. I'd say he's a happy guy.

A couple of recorded episodes of Ballykissangel finished off the day nicely, and I came back home to listen to some music and watch a bit of TV.