Saturday

We decide to head down to Harringay for the shopping early today as it's supposed to be a sticky 30C and it's already feeling muggy by 10. It's so nice, though, that we decide to swing by Finsbury Park on the way - mostly to take a look at the stage going up for tomorrow night's free Rage Against the Machine gig.

It's weird walking this way again as I realise we haven't done it since we moved away from Finsbury Park and it seems ages since last summer when we'd walk the 30 seconds around the block to be sat reading in the sunshine here. We cross the park from north to south and catch a glimpse of the massive, festival-standard stage that's been erected, along with the usual mix of Carling-branded temporary bars and dubious-looking Curly Fries stands. It's slightly surreal to see a park you know well instantly transformed into a very believable 'festival'-type sight - so K takes some pictures and we look forward to coming back tomorrow afternoon.

After lugging the shopping back and ending up a ridiculous sweaty mess, I head out to meet Alex in Islington for a bit. We walk down Upper Street and through the market in Camden Passage, spending as little time as possible in the horrifically sweaty shops. Alex has known me for a long time - she has Starbucks napkins ready to pass over when I look like I'm going to literally drown in sweat.

I get home at 5, just in time to get off the tube and get caught in a brief but fairly massive summer rainstorm - reducing my already less-than-pristine appearance to something basically unsalvageable. I am forced to pop in the shower before K's sister arrives from Cardiff for tonight's gig.

After a few drinks at home the three of us head into town as we have tickets to see Aidan Moffat at the Borderline. It's been two years since I've seen him live, and it's nice to be taking K to a gig she hasn't chosen for a change - usually I'm the clueless one. The Borderline, happily, is air conditioned and oddly empty, but Aidan is on brilliant form and stands alone, playing an autoharp for most of the songs. The set is a mix of songs from his How to Get to Heaven from Scotland album, poems from the I Can Hear Your Heart effort and - to my giddy delight - a couple of beautiful old Arab Strap songs, namely 'Blood' and 'I Would Have Liked Me A Lot Last Night'.

K and her sister seem to enjoy the gig a lot - chuckling along with everyone else at the filthy lines and melting at the drunken-Scottish-poet melancholic romance bits - and afterwards I drunkenly take the pair of them up to meet him, with the opening gambit, "Aidan, you must meet the twins!". I'm an idiot.