TomWinnifrith.com

In Asterix the Gaul there are bouts of frenzied activity, hostilities and then, after the Romans are sent packing, the little Gallic village gets back to normal with everyone eating, drinking and doing nothing much in the way of work. I am reminded of this as I stare out of the restaurant formerly known as Miranda's where I will soon pay six Euro for a superb home cooked lunch. In case you wonder: park in a wine sauce with Okra.

Fear not daughter Olaf, I have now laid down the snake repellent at the Greek Hovel. Two canisters, as you can see below, 10 yards away from opposite corners of the house now emit a smell which snakes are meant to regard as foul and so will keep the hovel, if not the snake-fields, free from serpents for three months until Autumn hibernation. Well in theory.

When I visit my dad, he urges me to take away one or two of the zillions of books in his house. Naturally I want to please him and do as requested but I am equally conscious that the Mrs reckons that our house in Bristol has too many books and that my suggestion that she bin her sociology books to make way for more of mine is not a runner. And now Joshua is collecting book after book as well...

From memory, Justine Greening was fired from the cabinet for being utterly useless. There may have been another reason but she was useless. Her pronouncements on Brexit confirm the case that she is just fundamentally stupid and yet another Tory who holds the electorate in complete contempt.

Today was the day that my books, a few pieces of furniture and wall hangings as well as four Belfast sinks were meant to arrive at the Greek Hovel after a van journey from Bristol, via Bulgaria.  Much to my surprise the Bulgarian chap in London called yesterday and said to expect delivery this afternoon.

My 32 mile walk for Woodlarks with my fellow rogue blogger, Brokerman Dan, is now just two weeks away and I am conscious that most of my training has been on the flat. What better way to prepare for the Surrey hills than to walk up a Greek mountain in the burning summer heat? And so at 8.30 AM off I set....

I am now back from my 12-14 mile walk of which the first six were solidly uphill. I shall post details of what happened on my own website but it was an adventure. Think of me trekking up the mountain road and please make a donation to Woodlarks ahead of my 32 mile walk with Dan in two weeks time. Donate here. In today's podcast I look in detail at Audioboom (BOOM) and its statement of yesterday. And I flag up some more red flags regarding Telit (TCM).

I cannot but help think that underneath it all Sadiq Khan is a pretty decent fellow. And all too often, as on knife crime in stab City, he is blamed unfairly for the manifest failings of others. But he does have a penchant for wasting other folks cash on pointless virtue signalling, such as the survey showing how racist cycling was, and when it comes to free speech he does apply a bit of a double standard. A case in point was the Trump blimp flown in London yesterday.

We ended the first  Uk Investor Show City event with  a conversation between myself and Nigel Wray covering a long time fave he has sold, a new AIM company he is backing, Brexit and much else. We also took questions from the audience. 

I have written quite a bit about the brutal and borish Warwick School I attended where staff physically abused boys (including me) and got away with it, where sport was king and where diversity was despised. How times change as the photo below of Simon Lycett inspecting a guard of honour provided by the CCF ahead of his speech day talk demonstrates.