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Mike’s blog – for his amusement

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  • The Teachers’ Lounge

    In this absorbing German film, accusations of theft escalate into chaos in the classroom and teachers’ lounge. Well worth seeing.

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  • Sutton 2 – 2 Crawley

    In an entertaining and competitive game, Sutton failed to hold onto their lead, letting in a potentially decisive goal in extra time. With Colchester losing, a win for Sutton would have kept the dream of avoiding relegation from League Two alive. The draw effectively means relegation though there’s still a mathematically tiny chance of avoiding this. The second largest home attendance of the season (4,675) were there to witness Sutton’s fate. It’s been a dismal season from start to finish.

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  • London stroll

    On the way back from dropping our son off at London City Airport we stopped off for a stroll along the Thames. The water level was so low that it attracted people to search the Thames’ beaches.

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  • My birthday lasted a week!

    It’s been a week of celebrations for this big birthday! Our son came over from Berlin for the week to enjoy Lebanese and Italian restaurants, a wonderful exhibition at the Hayward Gallery, two pub visits with his dad, and lots of time with his sister’s family and their wonderful little ones.

    Books and chocolate were the themes for presents. A neurologist writes about his patients, a Berlin themed book, a London themed book, and a random selection of cinema themed books, they make for an interesting non-fiction collection. Some of them may need to be skim-read! Thank you, family.

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  • Hayward Gallery – fabulous

    What an astonishing exhibition

    And check out these two videos…

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  • My Gin Rummy program

    It’s finished – so what’s next, Mike? Over a couple of pints my son suggests backgammon. So my challenge is to develop a backgammon program with the objective of winning a game against my son. He’s a serious backgammon player so it’s a big challenge – watch this blog!

    Press play to watch a hand of gin rummy!

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  • Eating East of Greece

    I’m known for not eating anything ‘east of Greece’, but in recent years I’ve dabbled in Lebanese food (only once with unhappy consequences!).

    In this week of family reunion and celebrations we (5+2) once again ventured outside my comfort zone and had a lovely time at this Teddington restaurant.

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  • Io Capitano

    An 11am performance of Io Capitano at Wimbledon’s Curzon was preceded by complementary coffee and cake to accompany the free tickets. A benefit of the occasional member-only viewings – this was our first.

    And what a wonderful film it is! A majestic, visually stunning tale of two Senegalese teenagers wanting to get to Europe. Brilliant.

    Surreally, just outside the cinema there was a man singing Abba’s Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight) in an accent that barely made the words recognisable, words he was reading off his mobile phone!

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  • Westhumble walk (again!)

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  • Morden Hall Park

    Some dodgy Photoshop colouring on a cloudy day.
    It’s National Trust, and there’s a very decent cafe and second-hand bookshop (paperbacks just £2!).

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