under another sun

Alice Russell Slipped free of my website shackles this evening to go out with Anton and Lorraine to see lovely Alice Russell at Brighton Komedia. It was the first night of her new tour, to promote her new album Pot of Gold and she and her great band, featuring writing partner TM Juke, put on a splendid show as usual. Acoustics very different there to when Anton and I last saw her last at the Concorde 2. But an excellent show with several promising new tracks, as well as my favourite Hurry On Home, which always reminds me of moving to Brighton. She also did the best version of Gnarls Barkley's Crazy I've ever heard. Very mixed crowd of old geezers like myself while Lorraine bumped into some of Beth's schoolfriends there. Alice is not really a diva, in the sense that she seems really approachable and likable. Someone shouted out ironically that she should be on X Factor. Which although quite funny, must also have been galling to someone of Alice Russell's ability. We all...

In need of a cure Diseases all day. As I write this interminable website, I'm trying to focus on how it will pay for lots of Skelton Yawngrave time, and I should be really positive about it. Popped to the gym later, but all manly vigour was sadly absent. Cheered by a note from Nev reminding me of an agency Christmas party on a Cowboys and Indians theme. We went as cowboy plumbers with big wigs, tashes and white overalls drinking our Guiness out of Butch and Sundance mugs with spoons in. It was all Nev's idea. And jolly good fun it was too. Also cheered by calls from Anton and Lorraine. We're all going out to see nice Alice Russell tomorrow night, which will be top. Too numbed to do anything, I watched House tonight for the first time, and thought it had some excellent dialogue. Curses, even my downtime is about diseases.

Mock turtle Woke up feeling somewhat better today. Down to the patisserie this morning to buy bread. Everyone in the shop clustered around a tiny puppy. These small animals make everyone lose grip of reality, especially me. Was pleased to see they all washed their hands before serving me my chewy brown bread afterwards though. Then Lorraine and I had a slow breakfast of kippers and toast, and read the papers. Calliope, despite pushing her face at the plates, spurned kipper scraps afterwards. Then as Lorraine went off to shop with Beth, I tidied up my front scrap of garden with the kitten charging about excitably with bits in her mouth, (see previous entry) and drawing coos of admiration from occasional passers-by. Kittens, like babies and puppies, are good icebreakers and should have been on the Titanic. My roses are still budding and flowering. As I pottered about I felt a deep welling up of joy not to be working on web pages however. Then off to the Library to join Lorraine for a wan...

A single marigold In the night, one of a noisy group of drunken youths in the Twitten appeared, judging by the sudden shouting, to have taken issue with one of my plants. This resulted in him kicking my front door. I was almost asleep but I got up, found my hammer, and went to investigate: nothing, and no harm done. But maddening though. I phoned the police though and felt a bit sheepish halfway through, no there wasn't any damage, no I didn't see them because I was in bed, etc. etc. Woke up fairly late, and Anton and Oskar called around, Oskar happily punching the keys of my CD player. Anton showed me the map-making site he'd found which will shortly be unleashed on the True and Wonderfull site. Spoke to Sprinkles, and then Mum. Then a massive bout of soundfile work. Put in hours, and made very little progress. In the evening my pal from work Alice and her husband Mike and their baby Mia came down to Brighton. We went for a fish meal in an Italian restaurant where I had a...

Alice Russell Up early, and though not exactly fresh as a daisy, I was full of cheeriness. After walking out early to get fresh bread from the patisserie and a paper, I snacked on kippers and toast, then had an exceedingly pleasant chat with Sprinkles for about three hours. In three weeks we will be laughing over a nice cup of tea instead of the Atlantic. My groceries from the Internet shopping were delivered but I haven't quite mastered this yet, as I found a carefully wrapped single carrot, and a single banana. After talking to Sarah, I spent much of the afternoon making ineffectual attempts to tidy up. Anton came by in the evening with tickets to see Brighton's own diva Alice Russell. Anton was always playing Hurry On Now when I first moved to Brighton, and it gradually became the soundtrack to my first few months here. We met up with Rick in the St James in Kemptown and headed off down to Concorde 2, which is down by the sea, and is an excellent venue: not too big, and goo...