Hospitality in City Hall

It was much too sunny and warm a day to go hunting for a new toilet and floor tiles for the upstairs bathroom, but that's what we did this morning. It took much longer than it should because the man who served us in the tile showroom was not only informative about tiles but interestingly chatty about lots of other things, so we lingered for ages, and didn't get back home until midday, the car laden with porcelain.

Then I went down to St John's tea room to do half an hour's washing up before going to Southgate House to do some invoicing, and update information on some companies about how to get paid. Then I went to pick up mail from the Vicarage, via City Hall, calling in there to check arrangements for setting up a small temporary office base there for CBS until our new accommodation in Charles Street is ready next month. We'll be in one of the south facing rooms overlooking City Hall's lawn and fountains, sharing with one of the admin team for the Wales GB Rally - should be an interesting place to work for a while.  

City Hall was busy with a big posh wedding reception, the staff were nerving themselves for a busy tomorrow. Not only is the Wales v Springboks rugby match happening in the Millennium Stadium, but also demonstrations by the English/Welsh Defence league and a counter demonstration by a coalition of anti-racist organisations, in the streets either side of the building. Inevitably, the media want to show up with all their kit to take before during and after pictures for broadcast, to try patience even further. At the best of times the place is busy and very well used by a great variety of organisations and events, as befits one of our most prestigious buildings, but the staff are worked hard indeed.

The back garden looks good in the sunshine, with petunias, French marigolds and geraniums breaking out, and our half dozen tomato plants looking healthy after re-potting.

Yesterday evening the song thrush returned as the blackbird was holding forth, and the two duetted for several minutes, only to be joined by a robin. I had my camera outside, set it to run on video and hunt it on the washing line. The audio component is superbly sensitive and can be extracted from the wobbly video footage on the computer, to play independently. One of the little pleasures I now have more time for.