August 2nd was apparently Social Media Detox Day. I celebrated this event by deleting my Instagram and Twitter accounts. I still have a very limited use for my little-updated Facebook account so that survives for the time being, but I'm still eyeing up the deletion menu.

The majority of the month that wasn't spent working was spent travelling around and spending money on hotels. I took the Grannywagon for a run up to the North to see some friends and former work colleagues. There was a somewhat boozy pub crawl of Preston which was quite enjoyable, with a few new micro-type pubs now in existance which got a visit. This was followed by a stop off in Southport where I didn't see the folks, as they're still being awkward about the pox.

I then took a run down South to re-visit Basildon. This time was for my first live gig in some time, being the initial live outing of Kunt and the Gang's punk outfit, The Kunts. That song was performed. The attempt at staying over demonstrated the generally poor design of the town, which has no hotels in the centre of it. I ended up in a Premier Inn located in a retail park that was a 25 minute walk away, and even then it was up a track around the back of the site. I also learnt that MegaTrain is still a thing, even after Stagecoach lost the Midland Mainline rail franchise. As a result, I got return trains to London for £30 and at reasonable times too.

Got a good day of cricket at Headingley, at the first day of the England-India third test, including that India 78 all out collapse. I only just made the first bowl as the trains went to pot in the morning, resulting in a two hour delay outside Wakefield and eventually resorting to a bus into Leeds. At least I'll get the fare back thanks to delay repay.