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• Attended a talk about bats, by Professor Fiona Mathews. There’s a lot of bats in my town, even rare ones. We often see them hunting in our garden on warm evenings. Now I know why: they love the local caves (there’s lot of caves round these parts).
• Wanted to start reading The Secret Commonwealth, but couldn’t remember all the details from La Belle Sauvage, so treated myself to a re-read of that first. 
• Went for a long-ish walk on Thursday, to Avoncliff and back. Had a cup of tea in the pub because the tea shop was closed. Mused about kayak ownership. Did not buy any kayaks.
• It was parent’s evening at our son’s school. One of his teachers said something I’ve never heard any teacher say before: “Look, you’re a great kid. Exam grades don’t matter. You’ll do well in life whatever happens. Don’t let the pressure get too much.” I was impressed to hear that from a teacher.

This week in music:

• Release, a Pet Shop Boys album that passed me by first time round. But it’s pretty good.
• Komo Saxo, by Petter Eldh and collaborators
• Souvenir, OMD’s enormous career-spanning compilation
• #hits, by Example; I don’t know why I listened to this
• Best of Billy Bragg at the BBC 1983-2019
• The Missing Cryptoqueen podcast… Blockchain has so much to answer for