Sunday

Having got a decent amount of sleep due to staggering home from the pub so early, I rise early and potter about making a fry up for Tim and I. We put away the bacon, fried eggs, beans and toast and watch Zack and Miri Make A Porno - which is more or less excellent all the way through, and always a good casual chucklefest - before preparing to engage with a rather nicer day outside than yesterday.

We walk through Wood Green and past my office up to Alexandra Park Station and on up to Ally Pally to check out the view. It gets warmer and warmer as we climb and by the time we're at the top it's become a really nice day - so we take a seat and pick out various sights; including the relatively new Olympic Stadium now clearly visible in the distance. It looks pretty massive from where we're sitting today - I might suggest a trip to Stratford with K at some point to check out the site's progress.

We eventually head back down to Crouch End, the plan being to watch the England v Japan friendly back at the Hope & Anchor. We arrive just in time for a game of pool before kick-off at 1.15 - and sit down to watch what must be one of the most godawful pre-World Cup friendlies of all time. Capello puts out an experimental team of sorts, who proceed to play as if they've never met before and each man looks barely a shadow of the international he's supposed to be. Japan take an early lead which is levelled after half time - by the same player deflecting a Joe Cole cross into the goal. Later, a second own goal puts England in the lead and Frank Lampard, worryingly, misses his second consecutive penalty. Not the most inspiring affair. Bring on the World Cup!

After the game, Tim leaves to meet friends and eventually head home to Brighton. I stop at home for a bit then decide to go back over to Crouch End, as Mike had mentioned he was in The Queens. A quick phone call when I'm halfway there informs me that he is in fact not there at all - so I phone Alex to recruit a drinking buddy in the hopes of avoiding a wasted trip. After waiting for her for a while and watching the England v Bangladesh cricket match on my phone, we sit happily in the sun discussing things big and small, as ever.

We get hungry, as ever, and Alex offers to treat me to some tapas and a bottle of wine at a restaurant a couple of doors down from the pub - an offer I am unlikely to ever turn down. Afterwards we end up, inevitably, back at the Hope & Anchor chatting to strangers in the beer garden - including one particularly friendly 6'8" Jamaican man who enjoys telling us about the catamaran he would buy if he ever won the lottery.

What started as a walk in the park turns into a particularly heavy Sunday session - and after making it home, somehow, I inexplicably make it to bed.