I saw Sinemis and MimiCof play at IKLECTIK on Thursday. I was particularly excited about Sinemis (Sine Büyüka), whose new album (which she explains in detail here) I absolutely adore. She was accompanied by a ney player for her set. It was beautiful, like being bathed in sound.

I wasn’t familiar with MimiCof (Midori Hirano), so I listened to her back catalogue before the gig. It’s fascinating to hear someone progress from classically trained to more and more experimental over the course of a few albums. Her set started with a Krell patch and got weirder from there. And I mean that in a good way. I loved it.

I decided to sell my car, which I barely use, and which has been sitting in the parking space literally gathering moss. (Like I have said before, this is a damp country.) It was useful around the start of the pandemic, when there wasn’t much transport and L— needed to get to work. It was very handy when we moved into our house. But I’ve hardly driven it in the past year, I don’t even like cars, and I really don’t need one. I live a short walk from the station. I can cycle into the centre of London in under half an hour.

The reminder that the insurance was up for renewal spurred me into action. I topped up the tyres, and tried to start the car. It wouldn’t start. I couldn’t even jump start it, because there was so little charge in the nine-year-old battery that the jumper cables couldn’t supply enough current. It serves me right for not driving it more – or not selling it sooner.

However, it was an easy problem to solve, just not cheap. I paid the AA and they came and replaced it in ten minutes for the cost of the battery (£199) and a £35 call-out fee (because I’m not a member).

With that done, I took it down to the car wash and paid some men £20 to remove the grime and cobwebs inside and out, and I’ve arranged to take it to sell on Tuesday. I’m expecting a decent amount: it seems to have held its value very well. That’s something to do with a lack of availability, I think, especially of cars that are ULEZ compliant like this one.

I managed to get some “side of a bus” snark published on a government website. Never gonna give up trolling authority at every possible authority.

I was sure I’d written “side of a bus”, but it came out as “side of the bus”. I think we all know which bus it is, anyway.

I was puzzled by a disappearing crossword puzzle. If you print out a crossword on a laser printer, fill it in using a Pilot Frixion pen, then decide to save paper by printing a new crossword on the back, you end up with two uncompleted crosswords and no writing.

It took me a while to work out that I hadn’t just put the wrong piece of paper in. Then I realised: the pens can be erased by means of a friction eraser that heats the ink a little, and it’s warm enough inside a laser printer to have the same effect.

Apart from that, they’re ideal pens for doing crosswords. I just wish they sold the restrained and tasteful Japanese design here, instead of the ones we get, festooned with the tribal swirls of a regrettable 90s lower back tattoo.