under another sun

A terrible night, with a sudden, painful and inflamed knee, coughing and general sleeplessness. Felt dreadful and hobbling so did not go up to London. Instead was in bed most of the day, reading and dozing and consuming various pills. Finished A Confederacy of Dunces at last, which made me smile a bit through the haze of tiredness and general discomfort. It is a good book to read in snatches. Also forced to miss the poetry workshop tonight, which is galling too. Chelsea lost today too. Gah, generally. On a happier note. I got the artwork, by Hannah Clare, through for the front of my pamphlet the other day... Looks pretty cool I think. The pamphlet is going to be called The Nightwork, and I gave a brief involving birds and dark stuff, and this certainly met the brief...

A bright and cheering start. Was offered three bits of freelance work, naturally for more or less the same time, but I appear to have two lined up for next week. Otherwise spent the morning falling hawkishly on the mistakes in my manuscript. Also contacted by Chiara Beebe, who is currently in Italy, but has been thinking about my poem A Return which she is now seeing as a piece for solo voice and full orchestra. She has earmarked August 6th as a possible date for its performance in St Peter Port. Felt like my plug had been pulled out half way through the afternoon, so I had a refreshing walk in the park. But after about 35 minutes, I felt utterly sluggish. Home to listen to a meditation tape, its soothing undermined by Calliope's feet clawing happily on my chest. Back to work till seven, by which time Lorraine had returned and to work next to me in the study. Enter Brian making proud meeping noises. Lorraine looked over the banister and, after a carefully long-range triage, sai...