Friends and family

Get up at seven and make breakfast, cream cheese with fresh chives, on rye toast, served with my favourite strong, black, Italian coffee. The beautiful weather continues and after breakfast, shower and dress, and then strip the bed and put on clean sheets and pillowcases. I put the soiled linen in the washer, before heading into town on my bike around ten. It is perfect cycling weather, warm, with clear blue skies and a cooling easterly breeze. At the metal footbridge over the river Hull, I change down to first gear and shed my chain. Fortunately someone has left last night's chip paper in a nearby rubbish bin and I am able to use some of this to put the chain back on the cog wheel without getting covered in grease. Another small victory! Arrive in Town and park my bike at St. John's before making my way to the Poppy Seed cafe for tea with some friends. They are all Liberal Democrats and support the coalition government, but think that David Cameron and his culture secretary, Jeremy Hunt are running out of road because of the revelations of the Leveson enquiry. I will get the conservative perspective tomorrow when I see Leslie. Later wander through the market and the town, enjoying the sunshine and the street musicians. There is a very decent mariachi band playing in Toll Gavel, so I listen to them for a while, before receiving a text from my sister, Jackie, to say they are running late and won't be here until two. This leaves me two hours to fill, but I find a good book in the Oxfam shop, " The Shadow of the wind," by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. So read this over a tea and scone back at the Poppy Seed and later, sat on a bench in the sun, in Coronation Gardens, a small but beautiful park opposite Rolando's, where we have a table reserved for lunch. Jackie and Gino arrive at two, and we have a nice, relaxed lunch until a quarter to four, catching up on all the family news. Afterwards we retrace my route through town as Jackie checks out the market and the shops whilst Gino and I chat as we walk in the sunshine. They leave at five thirty, as they are going to see a band in Leeds tonight, and I pick up my bike, call at the supermarket, and then cycle home for six. I feel tired, perhaps the sun, or more likely the wine at lunch time, so hang the bed linen out to dry and then put my feet up for an hour. Later make some beef and ham sandwiches and bring in the dry washing before an early night with my new book.