Back when the Park Cafe was known as Cafe Cha it had music some evenings. The room was tuned to “D” I think as it had a great resonant frequency. Ocelot and The Well Known Thief Family has some memorable gigs there. Even the late great Modal Roberts (RIP) played there and also Fred and Al before Mark and I joined later to make the Experience. Al Ronald - A comedian I worked with, I also met there. A kind of cultural space we have lost. There was a meeting there of artists and think this picture of me dates from then and Rob is in the door behind me. For a laugh I put the picture next to one of my musical heroes, Eric Satie. I think I had one of my bonkers episodes where I composed a few piano tunes in the style of Satie which I am still fond of. The Cha Cha Cafe was one of the first places that semi-opened after lockdown and you could queue safely outside for a coffee and decent (not overpriced food). The people that ran it sold up a year or so after and moved out to run a cafe in Cornwall. It’s now run by a company that has a few park type cafes. The food is overpriced but they make a fine coffee and they still have dog biscuits on the counter for canine visitors which was something the previous owners started. Back then it was 20p for a bag of biscuits which are now free so the dogs are winning at inflation, not me. Sunday was my usual morning out - this time hastened by the double threat of Laura K**sberg and Nigel Fartrage on the TV so to avoid smashing it off the wall I left in good time. This morning I bumped into Rob (Ocelot) and Lucille. We both as grey as heck these days. They had a game of ping pong outside on the open air tables and I remarked that this is the only sport I have seen Rob partake in for the 25 years I have known him. We acknowledge that Watford and the world is not the same and then go our separate ways.

Somewhere in Denge Marsh a group of Aliens have “Gone on holiday by mistake”. A nearby static caravan site of Romney Sands attracted the visitors advertising a thrilling stay. Close to the hum of Dungeness Power station, the aliens take shelter in the abandoned gravel pits next to the concrete acoustic radar dishes. They’ve been stuck there for about 40 years now and are largely unnoticed. They quite like our music and the decent chips from the nearby Pilot pub but there is now a creeping sense of Ennui with the human race and it’s limitless stupidity.

A companion piece to John Edginton’s documentary “Robyn Hitchcock:Sex,Food,Death…and Insects”. Robyn discusses his songwriting process while trying out four unfinished songs.

“Dog” by artist Diego De La Rosa. oil on panel, 10 x 8 inches 2022.