Record-breaking tea dance

A work meeting carried into lunchtime so I missed Fred's call asking if we could meet for lunch. I went to Trafalgar Square where we usually meet, but I couldn't see him (he was there - I just didn't look hard enough). Instead, I saw the world's biggest open-air tea dance take place. There were 508 people, some who took strangers as partners, some who were fantastic dancers and others who took part for the craic, some who were in full suited dress and tourists in shorts and t-shirts. It was wonderful and everyone was smiling. Hooray for tea dances and trying to break world records. I would have taken part myself and was 90 percent tempted, but work called. Boo, hiss, boo.

I had a fantastic cycle into work with all the traffic lights going in my favour, knocking 15 minutes off my journey (plus I must be fitter and faster by now). I cycled past a mammoth traffic jam at Dulwich in which two 4x4s had met and couldn't scrape past each other (several people with hands on hips and furrowed brows). I walked the short journey around the impasse and cycled up the empty road up to Camberwell with the horns of the frustrated drivers blasting behind me.

On the way back, I met Fred at the National Theatre living room and we cycled to the Rosendale pub where we met Si and Lindz for free jazz and amazing potato wedges. Fred was relieved that we'd gone to the one pub that doesn't have a pub quiz on a Thursday night.