It’s evening on 20th January 2026, that’s Tuesday, one of those Tuesdays, yay. Whistlebinkies calendar shows that next Tuesday is as well, two in a row? Indeed, confirmed by Mr Marah himself. Tonight will be the fourth time I’ve seen the Scat Rats this month, then there’s Stramash at 7pm this Saturday too, yays. The Louis Crosland Trio were on the late night slot a couple of weeks ago at Stramash, that was a lot of fun!

I hadn’t been out at that late at Stramash in a while, the LC3 hadn’t played that slot before, didn’t quite know what to expect, I told them, students, lots of them, I wasn’t far wrong. As students go, they were a good crowd, enthusiastic dancing going on, I include myself in that, I couldn’t resist, being a bystander really wasn’t an option. The final number 7 Nation Army was an awesome ending to the night. Since then they’ve played Binkies twice, and they’ll be back there again on Thursday at 9.30pm. Yes, I’m having a rather fine January!

Last Tuesday was cinema time, I took myself off to see Marty Supreme. It’s a long film but it keeps up such a frenetic pace, it didn’t feel as long as it might have. I enjoyed it, fascinated by the place of table tennis in 20th century cultural history; partly because my mother and her sibling were keen players when they were young, sadly, though I was briefly keen, my abilities were seriously lacking. It is based on a real table tennis player, one Marty Reisman, I have a good dive into the facts behind the fiction and having watched clips of Reisman, yeah, Timothée Chalamet’s character wasn’t far removed from the reality.

Other bits this month, hmmm. Oo, jam on crumpets, it works! Or, at least my bramble jam does. One lucky recipient of a jar, mentioned that he spread it on crumpets. This appalled me, being a buttered crumpet fan, but, I decided later that I should at least give it a try, just a dollop so not to waste a whole crumpet if it was awful. Reader, it wasn’t, not quite a green eggs and ham moment, but certainly much better than I’d anticipated. I may even try it again sometime!

Must dash, toodle pip!