Babylon by Bus

Up at seven, and working on the same new poem. Slow progress, but it might turn into something. Then breakfast, and spoke to Mum several times, and confirming the order for the fire had been placed, chasing chimney sweeps and so on. Apparently this is peak time of year for sweeps. Nothing from the first guy I contacted, so I contacted another who gave me a date weeks away. After some persuasion he said he could try to fit Mum in before. Later in the afternoon the first sweep called to ask if Mum was in so he could do it now, but by then she'd slipped off for a sanity break in The Waggon and Horses, so we missed the slot. No sweep able to commit to a time, but will pop by when in the area. One of the two will come good I hope.

Catching up with terrible local news from the weekend. A small mosque in Peacehaven, not far along the coast towards Brighton, was deliberately set on fire on Saturday. Good news was that one of the would-be murderers has already been caught: a white local man of 46. No doubt stoked by the lies and vileness fed to people on social media, and stoked by hate mongers like Reform, Trump and so on.

A long walk this afternoon, in beautiful warm weather.  Ended up with almost 8 miles on the clock.

In other news, I received by Bus Pass, which says on it 'Concessionary travel funded by HM Government with your local authority'. Actually it was funded by me, paying decades of tax, but that's beside the point. Good to have it. Henceforth, I am all about the busses. 

Lorraine had a busy day with Pat and Maureen, both receiving flu jabs. We spent the evening mostly listening to music. Lorraine creating a rhyme time resource of the Library, while I was reading more of Light by M. John Harrison, an enjoyable, and mind-bending yarn. Some of it set in Chiswick where I used to live. People making off to Gunnersbury Station and so on, and listening to the traffic on Chiswick Bridge. A sort of thrill seeing somewhere you know really well in a book.

Lorraine and I slunk off to bed early and read. Soon asleep though... Another boon of walking.