We set off from a very sunny and very hot Scotland on Friday. I had tried to get the AC in my car re-gassed on the Thursday, but it has a leak and needs time to locate... so a long, hot 10-hour drive down to London on the UK's hottest-ever June day with no AC.

We arrived at our hotel to be told that the hotel has no AC and the rooms are very hot. A small fan was offered. Hot? This was an oven. A very uncomfortable night, little sleep, and I was up at 7am to make a dash over to Harrow from Enfield. Arrived in good time and set up.

I suspected the turn out would feel small compared to the LSPEXPO back in March — it was 37 degrees in London, not ideal weather to encourage the public to a trade show. That's not to say the show was not busy; I was on my feet for most of the 8.5 hours. I managed to take a few peeks at the surrounding stands and played with an Osmose Expressive E. Ooooh.

Met many people, had lots of good conversations, and made some new friends. Made some important contacts too. And that's the point of these events — it's about the community. I am well aware that as I move The Monk Project forward, I will become a part of this community, and from what I have seen so far, it's a great place to be.

Nick from Sonic State was straight up to see me, but I was in mid-conversation, so he came back later and managed to grab a follow-up interview for Sonic State. These interviews are incredibly important to me, and I am so grateful for the opportunity to do them. Having the support of established figures in the industry like Nick, and the platform that Sonic State provides, is invaluable — it brings visitors to the Monk Project and helps build the awareness that will, hopefully soon, turn some of them into customers.

Apart from the oppressive heat and dire hotel experience, it was a good weekend. Got out of "Hotel L'Inferno" around 7am and headed out to enjoy the cool London morning and little traffic. So we drove to Camden to have some breakfast and catch the opening of the markets.

On our way out of London we decided to take a short detour to drive down a famous London Street — my Grandmother lived off Abbey Road, a few streets up from the studios. That, and having mastered our first vinyl for Transfer Injection Burn back in the 90s here at Abbey Road, this was somthing of a personal journey rather than a pilgrimage for me. Funny how clear the memories are of pulling up in my old knackered Audi GT, having the gates opened by the Abbey Road doorman who was expecting you, being welcomed and given the tour, then heading upstairs to a mastering suite to work with Chris Lud (Ludvinsky) who took great care to give us the best possible mix for pressing to vinyl. 30 years have gone by since then. Seeing my grandmother's house too brought back even younger memories.

We then headed north and my partner noted that the houses reminded her of the house in the UK show "Friday Night Dinner". I realised we were not far from where it is, so she looked on the GPS and we were just a mile away! Detour. I noted that the raised bed that featured as "Wilson's grave" was not there. I wonder if it was just a prop, or maybe removed due to a different type of pilgrimage. One could imagine a similar scene to that at Abbey Road for the die-hard fans of this show.

The rest of the drive back was smooth and we stopped at a cool US-style diner on whichever motorway the GPS took us on back up to Scotland.

Home. Tired, and probably dehydrated. Off to bed. More to do this week...