under another sun

Woke up with an achey kind of cold, but took Lorraine's Cure All of  cup of tea and two paracetamol and felt better, if slugs feel at all.  Sonia was coming to clear up so I made myself scarce and worked instead in Starbucks on my book for several hours. The best session I have had this week, not that this is saying much. For the last half an hour a tiresome gym instructor on the next table was blaring onto a family, as the mother who had gone to his gym. This gave him permission to give them the benefit of his vacuous opinions in a way that penetrated my Brian Eno filled earphones, and eventually drove me away from the cafe into the gym. Bumped into Ash, who once owned a restaurant Lorraine and I frequented, and did a mild mannered 30 minutes in the gym. Home again feeling shattered, then up to London to meet colleagues Pat, Barney, Mark and Clare up in the smoke for a bit of fun and networking. Just made it onto the train. At Victoria got out of the train and felt dizzy an...

Up early as we had a house viewing today. Lorraine and I took ourselves off to the park for a cup of coffee. Nice to smell the roses. The park being prepared for the big Pride Party later in the day. The parade walked past the end of our road, so we went to watch with everyone else. It always makes me feel quite moved and proud of being in Brighton for some reason, full of colourful characters, music and fun. We bumped into Ash on the way back home for breakfast. He had run the restaurant that Lorraine and I first used to eat curries in. Stopped and chatted for a good ten minutes. Home and we had a long chat with Nicki and Mark next door about selling the houses and so on. They are good people. Felt quite inert today, and slept like a baby in the afternoon. Then Lorraine drove us to Chertsey Meads for an evening with Max and the FB. A bit of a mission to try to find somewhere to buy some beer and wine in the town. Really good to see them both, and their brood of young Elijah, Zemir...

A curious coincidence Cooler today. Donned the socks that Joan knitted. Transpires that Calliope keenly attracted to them and had my toe bitten quite hard at one point. Also keenly feeling the fact my desktop computer is still not working. If the last Dell estimate of delivery is to be believed, I should have the software midweek. The jobs which are making me feel most anxious because they are not done, such as the anthology of Guernsey stuff, and starting phase two of the Skelton Yawngrave campaign, require me to have that computer. Got a text to say that Phil and Ash, of my old agency Dell posse, have had a little girl today. An eight pounder, which is excellent news for them. Otherwise, I worked on three poems and generally made them worse. Sat in Starbucks for a change of scene and tinkered over a large skinny latte. I read Richard's poems for the book, and some of them are wonderful. It is strange that when I read his work there are things in it that I have half thought of wri...

Ninja daisy Breakfast with Ash and Phil, and later Aimee. Having cleverly avoided drinking myself into oblivion the night before, I actually felt fairly fresh this morning as we ate breakfast overlooking the mountain to the south of Westport that kept losing its head in clouds. I want to go back there one day. Wanted to pop out for a breath of air. Aimee in lively capering fashion decided to turn into a bit of a scramble around the perimeter of the grounds. She did this clutching a flower, which she called the Ninja daisy, which she used to compel me to follow her. After this adventure, off to pack and meet up with everyone before we went off to the beach under the cloud shrouded mountain. Was stunningly beautiful, with the sun spotlighting bits every now and then. The sky changes so rapidly everything looks different all the time. Makes me think of W.B. Yeats. The west of Ireland is a magical place. Then the long trip home. A drive through the countryside to Knock airport, where we at...

Friday night in Matt Molloy's Off to Ireland for Marcella and Adrian's wedding. A long journey from Brighton to Stanstead, but I met Aimee - who was over from Dubai for the wedding- on the Stanstead Express. After making it past oddly obnoxious security people met Phil, Ash and Paula. Once onboard I grabbed a window seat for, as everyone knows, my duty to is keep the plane aloft through sheer will power. Despite this, found time for a heart to heart with Paula. Landed in Knock airport after flying over beautiful Irish countryside, which seemed to have lots of lakes and is much emptier than England. We all shared the hire of a car and Phil drove us the lovely Knockranny House Hotel which was about an hour away. Lovely hotel, with a big welcoming fire in the lobby, and gorgeous views of mountains and down into Westport. After a cheeky 40 minutes sleep, we met more pals and got into a cab which took us down into town. This is the second time I've been here, the last time was ...