- A bad start to the week: the remedial work I’d struggled to arrange over several months for my garden office with the manufacturers was abandoned soon after their workmen arrived. The building is sinking at the back and the plan was to dig down at the sides to insert a steel beam underneath to reinforce the structure. But they gave up when they found some concrete. Useless.
- We now need to get separate builders in with a pneumatic drill to break up the concrete. My dad is in his seventies but is infinitely better at these things than me so we’ve arranged a weekend visit to assess what we could do together. His brains, my (dubious) brawn.
- The boys have finished their football training for the summer and so we’re back to kicking a ball around at the park opposite in the sunshine. My footballing ability is ever closer to being eclipsed by my children. As soon as they can run faster than me I’m toast.
- Somehow England are still in the Euros. It’s painful watching. I’m looking forward to the new club season instead: I’ve bought us all tickets to Arsenal’s Emirates Cup pre-season match against Lyon - our first Arsenal match together.
- The diet continues unbroken. Five months to go.
