Saturday

It's a beautiful Saturday morning, and after getting the usual Big Shop done, we head to Crouch End to meet up with some friends and check out the Haringey Carnival. After meeting the group at the King's Head we walk down to Park Road to get a space on the road for the parade, which we are reliably informed will be coming this way. The street isn't busy so getting a space isn't hard, but sure enough we're soon watching a marching band, a collection of floats containing various young "Miss"es from around London and the South-East and a slightly unwieldy-looking lorry housing a lively school steel band.

It's all a little low-budget, to be honest, but then these things probably aren't as popular as they used to be - and it's a bit of fun for us idiots clutching beer cans by the side of the road, sweltering in the oppressive early-July heat. When the procession has finally gone by, we walk down Palace Road towards Priory Park to visit the steam fair. It's clearly attracting far more interest than the parade - as it's a properly authentic steam fair with complete with impressively old-looking rides and funny painted artwork offering far more thrills than the century-old attractions are probably able to provide. K and the others go on a couple of rides, but as they're the spinning-round based carnival rides that really don't do anything for me other than make me sick and dizzy, I abstain and hold the bags like a mum at Alton Towers.

After leaving the steam fair, we walk up to the Queens to sit in their beer garden for a while, and to catch the end of Germany v Argentina on my iPhone. Germany unceremoniously dump Argentina out 4-0, an impressive result and one which whets the appetite for a potential Germany v Spain Semi Final, should the Spanish prevail over Paraguay later tonight.

A few more folks turn up, and it's nice to see them all - especially as this is the first time we've seen a lot of them since we announced the engagement. Cue a lot of questions about the proposal and our plans for the wedding, and of course a lot of cooing over K's ring from the girl contingent.

Having had our fill of the Queens' prices and hospitality, we change venues and head for the cheaper Hope and Anchor up the road - again taking up residence in the outdoor section and generally being happy and noisy. One amazing moment comes when a couple of the lads foolishly order "Ladyboys" from the bar - a reference to a scene in the first series of I'm Alan Partridge where Alan orders a pint of lager with gin and tonic and Bailey's 'chasers' (oooooh, Ladyboys, etc), so we happily watch them try and digest a predictably disgusting collection of drinks.

Later the Spain v Paraguay game comes on the TV, so we move inside to keep an eye on it (despite few of the assembled group really giving a toss about the game), which, despite a mad few minutes in which both sides miss penalties, is a fairly turgid game - Spain ending up 1-0 winners. Playing as they are in this tournament, it's hard to get that excited about Spain. While they clearly have the highest quality squad in South Africa, they're certainly not playing the highest quality football.