It is now just about the end of a long day; one that has been mixed.

This morning I walked the dog, then headed off to the Marks & Spencer press tasting in their very glitzy modern offices in Paddington. There was a tube strike today in London, so not many people showed up. I was OK – the Bakerloo line was one of the few running, but for others, it was pretty tricky getting across town. Pictured above is part of the very long queue at the Paddington Station taxi rank.

The wines showed well, with some lovely, affordable sherries perhaps the highlight for me. Then I met with Sam Harrop and we finalised some of the details of our upcoming book, which we are now probably going to title ‘Authentic wine’, rather than ‘Natural wine’. It was a profitable discussion, and we’re close to the finishing line.

The IT horror? My wordpress blog got hacked, and it has taken a long time trying to sort out the damage. I’ve just finished working on it now. At one stage I was very scared that I’d have to start again – everything from mid-February to now lost. I’m cautiously optimistic that all is now on the way to being mended. I apologise to anyone who tried visiting today and instead of my blog found the hacker’s work.

Not all is yet working OK – headers, for example, are still broken.