under another sun

The brief did not arrive, and the meeting we were supposed to have this afternoon was cancelled so me and Keith not much of a revenue generating machine at the moment.  However this gave me time to interview Peter Raynard, a lovely bloke who had grown up in Coventry and just a couple of years younger than me so I could really picture the Coventry of the '80s that he was talking about. I also prepped the questions for Sarah Barnsley for our interview next week. Then we drove into town on a charity run. Went to three charity places to drop off things like books, clothes and sleeping bags gratefully received by the homeless charity. The woman in Martlets acting as she was doing us a favour taking our stuff, which rather irritated me. Lorraine lovely to everyone of course, so that was all right.  I also went to the Apple store and recycled my ancient laptop, and two old iPhones. For one of the phones I got a voucher for £65 which was a big win. Then Lorraine and I went across to t...

Morning started with a cup of tea from my lovely Lorraine, followed by Calliope vomiting up her breakfast near me as I got dressed. Felt a sudden wave of stress this morning, so bad I had to make a plan to get to grips with it. First item was go for a brisk walk first thing, which helped a great deal. Home, and found a tax demand on the mat, the one from last year which only came to light when I called the tax folks the other day. I am due a couple of payments from clients in the next few days, so hopefully I can pay that down. This morning my apple devices were suddenly no longer receiving email. I then spent over an hour having a screen chat with a man at BT who deleted my email accounts my computer and iPhone, but was unable to reinstall them. He then announced it was an apple problem and bailed. Had lunch, spoke to Mum who was stressed about the land registry papers connected with her house. I phoned the solicitor in Brighton and briefly talked this through with them. They we...

Feeling out of sorts, and light headed today. However Lorraine and I went shopping in the car and I bought myself a new desktop computer, and iMac, as my old one is more than six years old and has been having suicidal thoughts, freezing on me and being weird. Amazing how quickly you can walk into an apple shop, ask for a computer and wander out with it in an unusual box, having dropped a four figure sum, all in about five minutes. They certainly are efficient there. Buying an apple product is a joy however. The packaging, the design and so on. Compared to the generations of Dells I specced up myself. In other news I bought some vests and socks. In the evening off in the bus to Hove with Lorraine and Betty to visit Rosie. A cheery evening eating takeaway Thai food, and drinking a few drinks. Rosie's got her place all nice now and really reflecting her personality. It includes a globular feathery light shade hanging down from the middle of the room like a cloud, which (being Rosi...

In need of a quiet day. Up early, however, to make cups of tea and film rain on windows. Film is my new craze, but it has to be black and white. After a leisurely breakfast, into Brighton with Lorraine to buy some sensible brown shoes for me, and new specs for her. The streets covered with salty grit, anticipating non-existent snowfall. Other parts of the country are knee deep in the stuff still. I like buying shoes. for they are a must-have remorse free purchase. Bought a pair from Clarks, whose shoes, when I was a scuff toed lad, where what responsible parents bought their children. Popped into the Apple shop to get new earphones as mine were on the blink. The Apple brainwashing is so good that I felt really impressed by being able to buy some earphones and walk out within five minutes. Home late afternoon, and abandoned myself to decadent idleness. Watched an excellent BBC documentary about ancient Egypt, and fiddled about with my rainy bits of film. Above all, though, getti...

A slow start to the day, Lorraine and I revelling in not having to get up. Eventually hunger for Quorn sausage sandwiches drove us up. Plus the arrival of two secondhand books, one by Roland Barthes, the other about HG Wells. I had to go to the twitten, to let the plumber in. I misread my times and got there an hour early, and had to wait. Alf the plumber was running late, so I ended up having to wait for almost two hours. Luckily I had my notebook and a pen with me, and used the time to work on my new poem. Alf could find nothing wrong with the shower, after many tests. Then into town to go about the important business of buying new underwear and socks from Marks and Sparks and a MacBook Air from the Apple shop. Lorraine with me thank God, as the place was incredibly crowded as the iPad Mini was just launched.  I would have simply gone away and returned another day. Lorraine compelled someone to serve us right away, after being told it may take between 5-10 minutes. Lorraine s...