'from alamut the old man despatched his assassins...'

eggs delivered. rubbish bin taken down. 

a walk round the river and the back of the abbey. 

a journey to the valley of the assassins

freya stark begins her account with a three page history of the assassins from their founding in 1091 to their 1256 destruction by the mongols of hulagu khan. marco polo mentions them, william burroughs also, betty bouthoul writes the book that burroughs reads. 

freya started her journey in may traveling to qazvin and then up into the hills and up to alamut. she describes it well but there are just ruins to visit and the locals' memories seem contaminated with other (earlier) travellers' tales. she is good on the people (she is good with people). 

sunrise 08:16 sunset 16:24

we are at better than 8 hours of daylight. 

'evidence given to the inquiry into the grenfell fire, for which a final report is pending, has suggested the company relied on other subcontractors to check the compliance of the materials being used, and that it took £126,000 of the £419,000 saved by switching the cladding to cheaper, more combustible material.

in a statement to the inquiry following this, rydon’s QC, marcus taverner, said the company was operating in an “orthodox manner” and “following industry practice”...'

oh dear. not looking good for rydon - horsemouth will now work out its rate for killing people. given 72 deaths at grenfell horsemouth makes that £1,750 per person - a tidy profit (excluding reputational damage). 

today horsemouth's brother will mostly be working and horsemouth will mostly be feeling guilty. 

ok he's just remembered - he should bring the bin back up. he's done that. feeling slightly virtuous. tick.