UPDATE: Tuesday 8th July 2030 UK time – video seems ok?

Extraordinary weekend; saturday was spent at OpenTech because Ben Laurie invited me to be on his “Ben Laurie and Friends talk Security” panel session; so I can say truthfully that I have done a gig on-stage at ULU… There are friends of mine who will get the joke. Most of them are Bangles fans. That probably dates us all.

Sunday was further packed – Adriana and I had lunch with Bob Blakley and his daughter, talking security and identity over a wonderful meal at Great Queen Street near Covent Garden; then we went on to the London Review Bookshop Cakeshop (wonderful place, great cakes, great coffee but that Adriana thought hers a bit bitter) – to spend teatime and the early evening with Marc Canter – he of Macromedia Flash fame – again talking much of the same, though from wildly different perspectives.

It was getting on for closing time, and Marc asked me “Do you think we could get another drink?”

I replied “Possibly. You could go over there and use your charm on them…”

So he got up, walked over to the till, asked for two lemonades and spontaneously broke into opera:

It was regrettably about 45 seconds before I pulled my wits together and ripped out my camera, but I caught the last few bars of the closing piece, most of the next and the conversation which followed. It was a delight, and afterwards, as Marc recalls, we absconded to a pub and watched some of “the game”, amongst the Bloomsbury summer fete.

Fantastic day. Shame it had to end.