Ode to Joy

Sorry to have been a bit quiet of late and thanks to the one of you who enquired after my welfare, which was sweet. Basically, work has been pretty intense, including a trip down to Essex (which I can only explain to American readers as an English New Jersey) for a court case in the county town of Chelmsford (I lost). I stayed the night before the case in a hotel. When I got off the train it was about 10 at night, dark and sticky hot. I got a cab to the hotel and the county cricket ground was awash with light in the gloom. There was a floodlit T20 game still going on. I'm a sucker for that sort of stuff but it looked good. After I checked in, I went to the hotel bar for a couple of beers feeling hot, tired and thirsty. The first barely hit the sides going down.

After duly losing my case the next day, I got the train back to London. Or at least that was the plan. At a place called Shenfield the train stopped. And stayed stopped. There was a trackside fire further down the line. No trains into London. It didn't look good. In the end I found two other guys who agreed to share a cab. We queued half an hour for a cab - time well-spent. I got into London after a journey through Essex to the very eastern end of London - Upminster. Then into central London and on my way to the midlands. By the time I got back to Birmingham I was ready to murder another beer. I did. So pretty flat out this week. I managed to write a short article on trial without jury for a legal publication but my comic novel and online criminal law textbook move very slowly.

So there it is. I usually don't blog much about me but that's what's going on. I'm off down to London again tomorrow to see my children and drink red wine with blogger Charon QC (link to left!). A quote from Jerry Garcia I just found and like: 'I'm shopping around for something to do that no one will like'. I kind of know what he meant. But maybe it's not a great plan. Below is a floodlit cricket ground. It's not in Essex. It's in Kinara in India in fact. But I like the pic. Oh and above is Beethoven's Ode to Joy because it's great and Fleur reminded me of it. Who could be against the European project with an anthem like that? Okay all sorts of dolts but never mind. Have a good weekend all!