Lend me your eras

It's the end of an era in Welsh rugby.@PontypoolRFC are saying goodbye to Pontypool Park - a ground full of history 👀 pic.twitter.com/99WyWCRo9N

— BBC ScrumV (@BBCScrumV) July 17, 2018

David Bishop and Mark Ring feature prominently.

Eddie Quizzard

We came second in the Antelope Quiz last night. Not too bad after the World Cup lay off when it was cancelled.

£25 in the bin for next week.

Hot Pod for my Dad Bod

I will be away on holiday that week, but it is always good to have another hot yoga option nearer home.

Mary Queen of Scots

Worth watching as I am reading 1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare?

Love On A Budget

Onion

Girl, you know I would do whatever it takes to make all your fantasies come true. I would cross a continent. I would cross an ocean. I would even tunnel to the center of the Earth just so I could find that one perfect gemstone, lobster, or ball of lava that would turn an ordinary night into an evening of ultimate perfection.

However, things are tight financially right now due to some unexpected expenses after I turned my apartment’s color scheme from scarlet red to ivory white with pops of violet. I think we can both agree my penthouse is seriously bumpin’. Yet the fact remains I don’t have as much liquid cash on hand as I would like.

I also made some poor investments.

This in no way means I will not please that booty. Instead, it means that there will have to be some regrettable but necessary cutbacks to our evening. Do not believe for one second that you will not feel like a queen. You will simply feel like a queen of a less prosperous country.

You know time are hard when even Smoove is suffering.

Lunch with John Lanchester

FT

“Are you interested in food?” John Lanchester asks.

We are at a table at the Dairy, a highly regarded restaurant in Clapham, south London, which is decorated in bucolic style to match its natural ingredients including vegetables grown on its rooftop.

It is a deceptively simple query, like others he later lobs at me during our meal. Lanchester’s most recent books – his 2012 state-of-London novel Capital, his 2010 account of the financial crisis, Whoops! and his new book, a tongue-in-cheek lexicon called How to Speak Money – relate to finance and the societal distortions it has created. But his first novel, The Debt to Pleasure (1996) was a Nabokovian mystery written in the form of a cookbook by Tarquin Winot, a prickly intellectual snob.

My car's engine once burst into flames on the M4 while I was listening to an audio book version (narrated by Richard E. Grant) of John Lanchester's The Debt to Pleasure. I haven't taken it personally however. I am still a fan so I was pleased to see that he eats at the Dairy (see Icons passim) the place in London I took my brother for his first ever tasting menu experience.

It’s properly good here. It’s where René Redzepi [head chef and co-owner of the Copenhagen restaurant Noma] ate when he was in town.”

John: We're lucky.
Myself: Yeah.
John: I mean, people should be envying us, you know.
Nick: I envy us.
John: Yeah.
Nick: I do.
John: Me too.

The Bikram Yoga Guy is Crazy

After last night's boozy disappointment with England going out of the World Cup, I woke with a "gentleman's head."

A head so gentlemanly it prevented me getting to my traditional Thursday 6:30 a.m. Bikram Yoga class.

Here, but way of a scold to get myself back on track, is Joe Rogan sounding off to a Nigerian/Kiwi MMA fighter (but of course) on why we all need to keep our Bikram up and running; flaws notwithstanding.

Colliers Wood at Latitude

At 3:30 on Sunday in Latitude's Cabaret Theatre: Sion Alun Davies (see Icons passim) in DESERTS - a short play by Sam Steiner.

At 8:05 on Sunday in Latitude's Cabaret Theatre: ten years on from their triumph at the Colour House Theatre (see Icons passim) the Award-Winning and world-touring Action To The Word present the world-premiere of their gig-theatre take on the most famous tragedy of all time – Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex.

British Empire Wrestling

I am going to miss the wrestling at the Mills on Sunday as I will be home in Cardiff. Into each life a little rain must fall I suppose.

20,000,000 Callum fans can't be wrong.

AS Monaco are pursuing a deal for Chelsea's Callum Hudson-Odoi, but have been quoted a price higher than what they paid for 16-year-old forward Willem Geubbels (€20m), according to RMC.

— Get French Football News (@GFFN) July 6, 2018

Well I never. 20 million, 20 million there; before you know it you are talking about a lot of money.

Roll on Wednesday

“You can’t coach brilliance like that.”

Ben is supporting England against Sweden in the World Cup this afternoon. Back in 2012 however (see Icons passim) when Ibrahimovic scored all four goals as Sweden beat England 4-2, he was keen to stress he is a quarter Swedish on his mother's side.

Fair 'Nuff, Gruff

As a devolved issue in Wales, and as an idea that was born here, the idea of a free health service for all serves as a beacon of what we can achieve as a nation and is something we must pass on intact to future generations.

Gruff Rhys

Wimbledon BookFest 2018

Online priority booking is now open for Friends of Wimbledon Bookfest: see https://www.wimbledonbookfest.org/Events/EventsCalendar2018.aspx.

Tickets will go on general release from Thursday 19 July.

From our point of view 2018 was smoother than 2017 which in turn was smoother than 2016.

I think I fancy:

• Nigel Shadbolt The Digital Ape
• Simon Scarrow What We Can Learn from the Romans?
• Robin Waterfield A History of Ancient Greece
• Richard and Jamie Susskind Future of Al on Politics & the Professions
• Yotam Ottolenghi Simple