Up at 6 am again for the drive to San Diego. Desert and cacti and mountains but gradually as we left Tucson the temperature dropped and we arrived in San Diego in a modest 71 degrees heat. We drove straight to the sea and had lunch in a sea-food restaurant right on the beach. It was one of the few actual cooked meals we have had and boy was it good. We realised how tired we were when neither of us wanted to drive. We are both bad passengers so we both like to drive but I let Neil drive us to the San Diego HIX. We found we had a room with a balcony from which you could just about see the sea. We threw the sliding door open and let air flood in rather than the air conditioning, which has been doing strange things to our noses. Then to the gig which Neil did last year. It is held in a Methodist chapel with a guy called Carey (Scary)Driscoll. Carey is scary because he has a list of instructions pages long and by the time you have read it you feel that he would really rather you didn’t come and cause him so much trouble. If you make the mistake of asking him a question which he has covered on the long list – you get no illusions about being a total idiot. Fortunately he is not so scary in person – actually a nice organised guy who I admire because he does keep these concerts going and its good that someone does. The other nice things about these concerts is that they are run entirely by volunteers. They put out lots of biscuits, cheesy things and tea and coffee and are niceness personified. How Neil performs so well night after night after the long journeys we are doing, I really don’t know. His audience is hugely appreciative and they can hear him without the hassle of listening through other bands, and then I think maybe he should keep touring in venues like this one. There really isn’t anyone like him mixing intelligent and hilarious comedy with haunting and meaningful songs and superlative musicianship – I can say this after a hundred years of marriage and completely objectively. Neil the performer, is amazing. Doesn’t mean he is easy to live with but that’s another matter. There are a hundred and one ways we annoy each other – driving is a big one. I think he takes too long to react and he thinks I need help finding places. He doesn’t and I don’t. We just have different ways of dealing with things.