under another sun

A cheery day, though I can't seem to settle to much in the way of writing at the moment. However, my passport was delivered today in record time. Obviously one of the so dark blue it's black UK ones, instead of the EU burgundy. Still mustn't grumble. Lorraine off to Carline for personal training, and then went off to try a spot of Acupuncture. The woman who gave it to her had a lot to say about spleens, and how the spleen doesn't like cold food. Listening to  How To Make Your Brain Your Best Friend , by the neuroscientist Rachel Barr as I walk. It is excellent, clear and and practical.  In Seaford Cemetery I was taking a snap of a path, when a woman driving through, stopped and asked if I was local. I guess she thought I was there to look at the commonwealth graves. I said I was and we had a friendly chat, and told me her family had lived here for years, and there were lots of her family here. Otherwise a lovely walk, a very warm autumn day. I am loving the idea I can ...

Up and breakfasted and off to see Mum. Just before Haywards Heath the driver announced there was a bad problem at St Pancras and to stay on his train and go to Victoria instead. Only a minute later we pulled into Haywards Heath and were all told to get off the train, as someone had died on the track towards Gatwick.  Both situations were going to be at least two hours to sort out, so I called Mum and told her I'd come to see her later in the week. I felt sorry for the dozens of dispirited people outside trying to get cabs to go to Gatwick Airport. I simply caught a bus to Brighton from around the corner. This journey soon became a misery as I was desperate for a wee and every stop in the middle of nowhere was a torture. Eventually hared off at Preston Park to the park toilets.  Then I walked across the park up to London Road station, where I discovered there wasn't a train for 50 minutes. Realised then that I had also lost my ticket -- the third thing I have lost in the last w...

Slept soundly and sprang up fairly early, and made off back to Lewes again. Excellently, we also picked up Beth and baby Enzo en route. James had a Very Important cycle race to watch. We met Innis and Rosie in a car park in Lewes, then walked along the river Ouse for a while. Innis pretty busy these days with his bird retrieval work, not to mention the coast guarding he is doing, often needing hours in the middle of the night. Rosie's job, which she loved, is coming to an end, and she is wondering how to deploy the skills she has learned.  Great to have Beth with us, and Enzo looking like the best dressed baby in the world. Nice to catch up with Innis and Rosie, and Pippi zooming about happily. Then we drove off to The Ram at Firle and had a happy couple of hours, eating a good Sunday lunch, and tucking away a few tasty 'Inclination' beers from Burning Sky, a brewery just down the lane.  Fond farewells with them all.  Thence home, and a bit of a doze. I then dragged mysel...

Took a while to clamber out of bed this morning, a slow breakfast. Then off to Maynard's Green to a large house with a pottery studio at the end of the garden. Here we looked at pottery tools, and Lorraine bought several things, and a twelve kilo bag of white clay. The woman there very pleasant. Also there was a little van there run by another woman, who we bought some a refreshing cup of tea and some millionaire's shortbread. On the way home we stopped at Alfriston, at Much Ado Books, where I bought a nice book by Edward Thomas, and Lorraine bought some doilies, to press into clay among other uses. Also we sauntered into the village store, where we bought some bits and pieces, and two pasties. These proved to be absolutely delicious. Mine was a Caribbean chicken one, which was stunningly good, Lorraine had a steak one which was fab.  Delores's birthday today. So we met Delores, already a bottle of Kylie down, and Sophia her daughter, and Asher on the platform at Seaford, b...

Working a bit this morning on a poem about time. Being haunted by the idea from reading Carlo Rovelli's book on time, that there is no such thing as 'now'. Look up in the night sky and you see light emitted  millions, billions of years ago which is just reaching your retina now. Time is relative. Talking of relatives, a chat with Mum, who I am going to see on Monday. Lorraine doing Story Time, and later spending time with Pat and Maureen, and taking to Maureen to the doctor about her ears. I meanwhile was free to slope off for a seven mile walk this afternoon, noticing leaves beginning to gather underfoot. Chunky dark clouds but no rain. As my new shoes compensate for my pronated feet my legs felt tired when I got home, because I'd been using my muscles slightly differently. Felt disinclined to do much once home and resting legs on the gold sofa and sipping cups of tea. Lorraine and I had a cheery evening indoors, not going to the pub tonight as we are going to an eveni...

Off to my drawing class this morning. I was told off by Melissa for saying thank you every time she makes a helpful comment to me. She said I was obviously a polite young man. I said I still was. A lovely model we'd had before who was lovely to draw.  Melissa is encouraging folks to use easels, and I enjoyed the sight of people struggling with the deckchair/octopus hybrids at the end of the lesson. Adele there, and I'm chatting to a few of the reg'lars now. It's a fun thing to be doing, I working disengaging my perfectionism and tutting at my own avoidable mistakes.  Home to find Lorraine with Enzo, while Beth at the dentist. The little lad was perfectly happy and relaxed and occasionally smiley. I went for a quick walk, then Beth arrived with shopping.  Lorraine collected Maureen and Pat, then drove Maureen off to a knee specialist in Eastbourne. I sat with Pat, who promptly locked a cup of tea over the carpet, Beth and young Enzo Patrick. Nice to be hanging out with B...

Escorted Mrs Kenny to the library. A beautiful, early autumn morning, and after she went in to delight the infants of Seaford, I wandered over to the Seaford Peace Garden, and then mooched down to the seaside.    Then home to complete the online form for a new passport. On reaching the payment screen I started the  futile search for my trusty green leather wallet. Even Lorraine couldn't find it. I've had the wallet for eleven years but it is properly lost. Luckily, nobody had used my bank cards and I froze two on my phone app, and the other with a phone call. I called The Prince Albert, visited Seaford Station, where the man in the ticket office was very helpful, filled out the lost property form on line, and popped into Seaford Police station. No actual police there, but in the tourist office reception area, shared by the police, a nice woman said it would have been handed into her but nothing had.   In the afternoon, I took out a rubbish bag from the bin and went t...

Up early this morning. Caroline was going to come around to do personal training with Lorraine, but cancelled due to a heavy cold. I however was picked up by Brian, who drove us off to Friston Forest for a hour's forest walk. Marley shooting about collecting sticks. Lots to chat about, and Brian pausing as ever over the valley in contemplation. I always enjoy Brian's company.  Home for more coffee, and a bit of desk work, and even looked at a poem. Also popped out to get a passport photo taken. To Brighton, where I bought some trainers designed for feet that tend to over pronation. Having researched my own feet using chat GTP, I strode authoritatively into Runnersneed and soon was slipping on a pair of ASICS GT 2000 14's and it was like treading on clouds. A quick cup of tea in a cafe, and a bit of a scribble and began a new instagram page for my assorted scribbles. Then to The Evening Star where Anton and Oskar arrived just after me. Excellent to see Oskar. He's prepar...

Lorraine off to Pat and Maureen's after breakfast. For me a morning of Pooterish minor peeves: irritably failing to make much progress with my website or anything on my list, let alone any writing, then broke off a piece of back tooth on an overripe avocado on toast. Also discovered I have somehow lost the little global peeling knife I've had for about twenty years. A long walk down new paths and took out my big camera to snap a suddenly glorious and fleeting theatre of light over a field, to find the camera battery was still at home.  Called around on Pat and Maureen for a chat and to collect Lorraine. On the way out we met one of Maureen's friends also called Maureen, who was very curious about me till Lorraine said I was her other half. Then we zoomed to the supermarket. Home via Maureen's again. Home and cheery, a nice chat with Mum, I'll pop up again next Monday. Then I cooked a highly-successful stir fry with some of yesterday's leftover pork. An early nig...

A day of two halves. A busy morning. Lorraine, Beth and Enzo zoomed off to Layla's second birthday party this morning. I discovered many of the outside sofa cushions were sodden, so spent some time hanging them and doing my best to dry them in the sun. Then lots of wee jobs before heading off for a quick walk. Beautiful day, an autumnal coolness, but warm in the sun. I took the photo below when the beach area was in shade, but the clouds themselves were all brightly lit. For a moment it was like looking at the sky of another planet. The ever-changing light in this corner of Blighty is incredible.  A plunge into Morrisons, then I went home and began roasted the pork after rubbing salt and mustard and a touch of paprika into its skin. Lorraine, Beth and Baby Enzo returned. Lorraine zoomed off to get James, who had been cycling this morning. I cooked assorted veggies, and Lorraine made a strong gravy and we opened a bottle of expensive bubbly that Lorraine had been given a while ago t...

Grey and lowering cloud first thing, Seaford Head playing peekaboo. Breakfast while Lorraine and I examined her pottery experiments. She had used different glazes and underglazes and come up with lots of colour combinations, rather lovely colours. Tidying, then Lorraine playing her piano, then I left her happily catching up on The Great British Sewing Bee to boof into the outside world for a couple of hours walk, placing by the seaside, the edge of fields, down leafy alleyways etc and threading through the quiet streets of Seaford, still  listening to the old BBC recordings of Wodehouse stories. On my return, a feeling of not wanting to do very much. Lorraine sewed, I read Kay Syrad's latest collection, yellow-noon day which seems beautiful, but its meanings were elusive to me on my quick read. I must give it more time. Instead, however, I became absorbed in the women's rugby semifinals between England and France, two teams of solid ladies crunching into one another. England w...

As just thinking about poetry gives me the ick and makes my skin crawl, after breakfast and Lorraine's scoot off to deliver Story Time, I called Mum for a chat, and then made off for a longish walk, ending up at Wynnes where I bought a large bag of fish food for the goldfish and then mooched back, alongside fields. Perhaps it was the return of a day of sunshine, or that I was laughing out loud to the Jeeves story I was listening to, but I strangely full of cheer, and ended up walking about seven miles.  My gut gripes have abated as mysteriously as they arrived. And apart from a bout of tidying the house did not too much otherwise. Lorraine spent much of the afternoon with Pat and Maureen.  Lorraine home, and I popped down the road to collect her pottery experiments. She is learning about the use of various glazes and slips and so on, and very handily there is a woman with a kiln just around the corner from our road. Two boxes, and some of the glaze combinations look very lovel...

Early again this morning. Lorraine zooming off to Beth's. Enzo having his first jabs today. I made off to the life drawing class. Again not quite feeling at the top of my game while drawing. Making lots of mistakes, and drawing lots of constructive comments from Melissa. Our model today was excellent, Lorraine Yu from Hong Kong who is also an actor.  Kate, one of the others who attends there, brought me in lots of coloured paper, as I was admiring her work, where she makes marks with coloured pastels directly onto coloured paper. I might have a go at that. Someone was handing out leaflets for a Poetry event in Ardingly, then began saying that when she taught poetry in schools they rhymed and had strict metre and so on. Everything else was -- and I am paraphrasing here -- degenerate rubbish. Luckily I took no bait. T.S.Eliot for example, published The Wasteland in 1922, which didn't wasn't in strict metre and didn't rhyme -- and that was over a 100 years ago.  Was feeli...

Lorraine hopped off to the Library to deliver Rhyme Time. I hopped onto a bus to Tide Mills and walked along the off road cycle path for half an hour to Mamoosh, where I met Stephen Bone for a coffee. He looked well, though has his hands full as a full time carer. Chatted about everything from hypochondria to writing, the forest of pathetic half mast flags around Denton Corner. He gave me a handsomely reprinted copy of In The Cinema, with three quotes on the back, from Tom Compton, Robin and one from me.   Fond farewells with Stephen, and we shall meet again soon. Hopped on a bus and got off at Hill Rise and walked home a lengthy route from there, listening to Jeeves stories.  A reading afternoon. As writing seems a bit tricky at the moment. I finished Zygmunt Bauman's Liquid Times then  Bluets by Maggie Nelson. After a promising chapter or two Bauman's book, written in that achingly tedious style favoured by academics, made one or two obvious points. So it's a meh...

Woke up at fiveish and then couldn't get back to sleep, so got up and worked on my new poem for a while. Lorraine's personal trainer Caroline had to cancel due to her dog needing to be taken to the vet, so we had a relaxed breakfast.  Decided the poem might be the sort of thing to enter the lottery of the National Poetry Competition and is part of my time and memory collection.  Later I asked Chat GPT about my feet. I learnt a new word today: overpronation, when your foot rolls inwards more than average, which mine do and I discover, however, that there are plenty of shoes for people with feet like mine. As I am walking two hours a day or more on top of just mooching about, it seems sensible to invest in more comfortable trainers.  Went for my walk for a couple of hours, listening to 1970s BBC recordings of Jeeves stories. An enjoyable lurk in Seaford Cemetery. Home, and Lorraine finishing off some bags she had made on her sewing machine for Beth. A light lunch, and Beth ...

Early at Seaford station, so I walked around the corner to look at all the messages and flowers left at the murder scene. I had half a mind to take a photo of them, but there was a young lad standing in silent thought there, so I decided it was in poor taste. As I stood there looking at the teenage messages and bunches of flowers a man stood next to me, and told me that the murder was over £20 (I read later it was to do with a minor drugs debt). He also muttered darkly about drugs crime in Seaford, after I said I thought it was rather a sleepy place. The murdered boy was from Newhaven, just a few miles west along the coast.  Off to meet Mum in Hampstead today. The sea particularly beautiful and full of white horses over the Salts. I got off at Lewes as usual, and bought a cup of tea and bumped into John White, a fellow poet, who I have met a few times but never spoken to at length. We chatted all the way up to East Croydon. John had worked as an editor at the BBC, mainly producing ...

A much-needed quiet day with Lorraine. I picked and chopped up a delicious pear from our little pear tree and the final four Kenny farm blueberries to go in our yoghurt with our seeds and nuts this morning. The satisfaction this gives me is hard to overestimate. As it was Sunday, Lorraine and I had a second piece of toast with jam on it. We certainly know how to have fun.  Then we surged into the spidery garden, doing assorted pond related bits and weeding and tidying. We fished out a bucket's worth of assorted pond plants to take to Beth and James. And had also loaded the car up with bags of garden waste from this morning's work, plus a couple of rotten old MDF cupboards and an old storage heater which were littering the garden. At the tip, Lorraine gave a woman a piece of pond mint. Then home and I immediately went for a walk before the expected rain. Listening to Jeeves stories, which are a tad lighter than the Autobiography of Jung. Home just before three, shortly before th...

Surprised that I was still a big photosensitive this morning, but finally by the end of the day, I was feeling much better, and went for enough of a walk to do my 10k minimum, mainly just along the seafront down to Splash Point. Windy and bright, after a torrential and thundery start to the day. A regrouping day in Kenny towers. A few pottering around jobs, but mainly resting. I downloaded the audiobook which collects all the BBC recordings of the Jeeves stuff recorded in the 70s, with Richard Briers as Berty, and Michal Hordern as Jeeves. Listened to these as I was walking. Also Lorraine and I listened to chapter one of a science book called How to Make Your Brain Your Best Friend , by Rachel Barr, a young neuroscientist who has built up a big following on social media. It is punchy and well written. In the evening, Lorraine and I watched Murder, My Sweet, (aka Farewell, My Lovely  in the UK). A lovely 1945 film noir based on Raymond Chandler's book. Great dialogue. My blood ran c...

The £2.5k had been returned in the bank. Lorraine and I were very relieved at this news. Who would have thought buying a crochet pattern could be such an ordeal. The bank were very good, PayPal not. A new idea this morning, which I typed out.  Still finding it difficult to look at the screen due to the migraine. A short walk, but still have the post migraine washed outness. Slept this afternoon. And finished listening to Jung's autobiography, not the easiest of reads but fascinating and unlike any other biography or autobiography I have read: a sort of autobiography of the inner life and development, not a chronicle of events. Perkier this evening. Lorraine went to the Boot, where we met Adele and Patrick, Andy, Steve and Guy. Adele showing us an excellent coat of many colours type of jacket she had learned how to make on a course. All friendly and jolly as usual, and a lovely way to end the week. Melissa popped over to say that the modernism exhibition at the Towner was really goo...

First thing, Lorraine discovered that overnight two and a half grand had been hoovered out of our joint and her personal account. She had made an online purchase of crochet pattern last night for a couple of quid via PayPal. Obviously this revelation very stressful. The bank were very helpful, and seemed to indicate her funds would be returned, but it had to be investigated. PayPal less so. But all in all a shitty way to start the day. I made off to my life drawing class where I kept getting the proportions wrong for some reason. A nice friendly atmosphere there, and Melissa good value as ever. Kate was going to buy some coloured paper, and asked me if I wanted in on some, which was nice. Home again. I went for shortish walk, down by the sea. Great brooding clouds, and the sea greenish and sparkling with light. I always like it when the sea is lighter.  On the way home I walked up past Morrisons, and there were a group of young people gathered on the corner opposite the supermarket...

A call at sixish this morning from Maureen who was worried about Pat, meant Lorraine had to get up and zoom around.  Eventually they were able to get advice, and later Pat was feeling lots better. An alarming and stressful way to start a morning, especially after getting to bed late after hanging out with the boyos last night.   I went for walk mostly in-between the rain, on the home straight now with Jung.  A terrible incident this afternoon at Seaford Station. A boy was stabbed to death by another boy. Both 16, and rather surreal in this sleepy town. Traffic and travel affected by the incident, with busses diverted, the station closed and so on. Lorraine passed the incident in the car on the way home not knowing what it was.    I managed to get a 12  to take me to Kemptown, where I attended a reading by Kay Syrad upstairs in Kemptown bookshop. I was a bit early and popped into The Barley Mow, which was literally next door, and found Charlotte in there. We...

Claudia and Jonas leaving this morning. We had breakfast and Lorraine drove us to Seaford Library. Lots of hugs between Claudia and Lorraine. I went with them on the 12x and saw them onto the coach to Heathrow. Fond farewells with both of them. I'd really enjoyed their visit, and I hope they did too. They had a long coach trip, and hanging about in airports and flight, and at least two hours on the others side to look forward to. I meanwhile, hurried off to  Cass Art and bought some more drawing paper, and a few coloured pencils, then took myself to the cafe I used to go into when I was working on A Guernsey Double for a sentimental  coffee. A really rude server, however, who conducted a conversation with someone through me, as if I were invisible. I also bought a cinnamon swirl (she carefully dug out the smallest one) and  sparkling water. Sat down sipped the coffee and bit into the pastry, which contained unadvertised almonds in it and made my mouth feel funny. Sluiced ...

A busy day for Lorraine, and for me a day to write and think, and to walk for a couple of hours, still listening to the Jung autobiography. Thinking about yesterday's inability to cross the empty space on the side of Seaford Head and wondering what Jung might have made of it. Perhaps the inability to walk from A to B  symbolises a decision I can't make. But the only thing that seemed relevant was the MS I have been working on, which is dragging on never quite seeming to be ready. I have had these sort of events all the way back to my childhood so it's not abnormal for me. Today's walk enjoyably uneventful. Lorraine meanwhile Pat and Maureen, and Claudia and Jonas to Eastbourne. Maureen had a hospital appointment, and after the Finns off to TK Max to look at clothes, having sat with Pat during a long wait for the scan.   In the afternoon I spoke with Tommy, the life model, who is writing a play which includes something about advertising. He wanted to know more about how ...

Up early today, thanks to the persuasions of Brian. I took Jonas and Claudia a cup of tea and Lorraine a hot water with lemon, then later we had breakfast. Jonas and Claudia enjoying Kenny farm tomatoes on toast with cheese. Then Beth came by with Enzo so Claudia and Jonas could meet him.  Then we made off to The Barn on the top of Seaford Head. Lorraine took them to where there was an art exhibition. Palo was there, and Lorraine bumped into Kate and Debbie too. As I was walking down with them, however, walking down I couldn't cross a bit of the hill where there was no cover or trees and felt frozen and overwhelmed by a feeling of exposure. I tried and failed several times to get across and then had to call Lorraine to say I wasn't coming down to the Coastguard Cottages. Instead I did quite a few of the day's paces walking enjoyably around other woody bits. I met them coming up, Lorraine striding ahead as she was worried about me. All was well, however, and we had a coffee ...