I've gotten to know my way around Coventry city centre quite well over the last few days, so that today I had to own that there were no more surprises waiting for me around the corner. There's a big shopping centre, a series of interconnecting arcades, and a covered market. There's a Waterstones and an Ottokar's, which houses a Costa on its first floor (strangely enough, there doesn't seem to be a Starbucks or a Caffe Nero anywhere), an M&S, a Sainsbury's, and a Debenham's, a Faith and an H&M. There's countless banks and building societies, but no vegetarian restaurant. There are, however, a few places that do good food, like Browns where we went for lunch on Saturday; or excellent coffee like Alma's where freakspawn and I enjoyed a cup and a slice of cheesecake yesterday.

There's a university and a bombed out cathedral that I'm not allowed to explore too closely yet, as it's on the List Of Things To Do Next Week, when Lorna has her holiday and can show me round properly.

Today I'd set aside to check out the museums, but the Herbert was going through a major refurbishment and only one of the galleries was open to the public and so I finished there in twenty minutes. The Transport Museum was next. They were laying a new carpet and the smell of the glue was so overpowering that I couldn't wait to get back out into the fresh air and the rain again.

Now I'm putting my feet up at home, conserving my energy: we're going on a pub crawl tonight.