under another sun

So last day, up and working on the train this morning to complete the work I was supposed to deliver at 11. Finished job with five minutes to spare, presented it, luckily to some acclaim, so I was officially big and clever for a bit and the frenzy of the last 24 hours had been worth it. The treacherous work computer worked without fault today too, before it was taken away to be examined. Hopefully with a sledgehammer. Lunch with Mark Dawson, an old copywriter pal from my days working in Glamoursmith. Went to a bar in an unpromising-looking hotel, which seemed faintly seedy. In other words, a great choice. We each had a pint of lager shandy, and a bite to eat. Not like the advertising lunches of yesteryear.  He told me his girlfriend had invited him to Kings Lynne, but he had refused on the grounds it was too flat. He seemed in good spirits however, and I've always liked Mark. Yippee, work done and off for four days. Tubes doomed, however, and it took almost an hour to get to Vi...

L and I lurked in bed till midday, eating breakfast and drinking tea. Thin snow on the ground, but cold. We'd bumped driving off to see Mum this afternoon, because of it. I finished my review of Jane's book , and then, as the weather was looking okay, Lorraine and I made off for her to join a reassuringly middle-class gym between her work and home. They gave her a gym bag and we had a coffee. It's a pleasant place surrounded by trees. There is a restaurant and a pool and so on. And a bar too.  The weather minibeasting again from late afternoon with snow again. It is amazing how easily you can get used to snow. We got home before it began again. Home and cozy and watching Cylons. We are getting towards the end of the Battlestar Galactica series. It's great. Below, a underwhelming beast first thing.

A bit of a cough today. Worked solidly on Sin Cycle for hours this morning, making a dozen last minute minor improvements. Will let it lie overnight now before I send it into the Poetry Business Pamphlet competition, which is the country's leading pamphlet competition. I have entered this before, but have never felt I've had such a strong hand. May as well start at the top. Tweeting in support of Robin and Stephen's pamphlet launch later this week. I don't do enough of this sort of thing. A long chat with Bob today, who was walking his dog as I was walking back from Sainbury's. Arranging a meet up and putting the world to rights a bit. Fresh tuna to eat with salad for tonight. Clean and simple. Cylons with Lorraine, then an early night.

Lorraine and I made plans about everything we would do today in bed this morning while eating Quorn sausage sandwiches. Then we fell asleep again till one PM. Not much time to do anything other than zoom off to Sainsbury's and the run about the house tidying up in preparation for our next door neighbours Harvey, Philippa and eight month old Magnus coming around. A pleasant chat with our new neighbours and a quick glass of wine before they set off on the four second journey home. Lorraine and I then had Sunday dinner and relaxed by watching more Cylons in Battlestar Galactica, known in the Kenny household as the best SF telly series ever.

Up early and did some billing and emails before I got the bus (being late) off to the Evolution Arts place for the Stained Glass window course. Making slow progress. Ben the likeable guy who runs the course tends to be reactive rather than proactive, so you have to ask for help. Some are far more insistent and doing so than me, which makes me feel a bit irritable. Still I managed to cut a fairly circular piece of green glass. I want to get the most out of the course, so I have to alter my approach and be prepared to be more of a 'pane' in class. Arf! All confirmed for a few days next week working with Fernanda. I had packed my bag with my computer and so on so I could start work in a cafe shortly after. Frustratingly I packed everything except my wallet. Chris, who I had a coffee with last week, stood me a coffee, and we had a fairly good chat, then I bussed home again, picked up my wallet, had a quick chat with Sonia, and walked back into town. I worked in Starbucks lookin...

Working hard this morning. I have utterly changed my policy on agents, seeing as many of them state in their guidelines that you can send them samples of your book (the ones that are accepting approaches) but can't guarantee to ever get back to you unless they are interested. I am just adopting a multiple, mail-them-if-they-have-a-pulse policy and turning it into a numbers game, until such point as anyone shows interest or I am done with the whole of the Children's Artists' & Writers' Yearbook. Then I will try another route. All this a long-winded way of saying I sent out my novel to two more agents. It is time consuming, because even if you have prewritten a covering letter template, synopsis and so on, each agency wants the information sent in different ways so you always have to adapt it. But machines don't mind doing this sort of thing at all. The policy from now on is one of unfeeling relentlessness. Beep. Whirr. I sent out a short story too. Off into t...

A dreary grey day. Made Lorraine breakfast in bed, and then we got up and zoomed into town, where I had booked Lorraine an hour's massage. I took myself to my favourite non-ideologically sound Starbucks, and read poetry by Stephen Bone and James Sheard, enjoying both. Then I collected Lorraine, who said that she was coming back next week as she was only half done. There was a lot of work to be done on her apparently. We sauntered up to Foodilic where we met Betty for a healthy lunch in her lunch break (vegetarian moussaka with two kinds of salad for L and I) chicken and two kinds of salad for Betty. Nice to catch up with her for a bit. Then she had to go back to work, and we did shopping and looked at curtains and other bits and pieces in various shops for some time, before grabbing a bus home. A cozy evening in, with the weather being full of rain and drear outside. Read a bit of poetry wunderkind Kate Tempest's book Hold Your Own . Patchy so far, but not without interest....

Cylon loving Frak me! Lorraine and I watched about six episodes of Battlestar Galactica today. This left precious little time for anything else other than going out shopping in Brighton for a couple of hours and having coffee somewhere. Outside it is becoming autumnal and cool. The beach was denuded of police and politicians and sunbathers, and the sea looked like this:

A waxing moon Wrote a short self-contained Skelton Yawngrave story this morning and sent this off to Mindy to record. It has Skelton going to the Natural History Museum and the staff thinking he was an escaped exhibit. In the afternoon did some cosmetic housecleaning and worked more on my Guernsey Anthology site, which is just beginning to take shape, and will soon be ready to unleash. Otherwise feeling tetchy. It is a significant birthday this month, and so naturally I have not been able to let this happen without a drift into brooding about failure and underachievement. At times like this meditation helps, so I meditated and then continued working with the waxing moon in my window until Lorraine came. Talking to Lorraine made things seem better, and halfway through a pint of beer in the Cricketers, the world seemed positively fine, and I recalled that I was fairly big and clever. Thence to the Agra where we were warmly welcome by Ash the owner. There was a good new chef too. Chattin...

Jam today Had a splendid idea in the night about my old pamphlet project and where I could try it next. Leisurely breakfast with Mum and Mase chatting about stuff and things over coffee, toast and homemade jam made from foraged fruit. Mum had been carbooting, and bought two nice chairs for £5 and was sporting an attractive 25p jumper. Made my way home, having scored three jars of jam: blackberry, blackberry and apple, and crab apple and the final series of Battlestar Galactica from Mas, about which I texted the Cylon-loving Lorraine on the way home. Home at lunchtime, to deluge my new pal Matt the conductor/composer with poems to see if he could turn them into music. Felt somewhat guilty afterwards. Maybe I should have sent one or two rather than the thirty. Oh well. Pottered about ineffectually, tending to the aquarium. Calliope scorning her food today to punish me for my overnight absence. A little magazine in Guernsey called Island Ink came through tonight with a feature about Jane...

Hobbled What happened? Two weeks ago I was in robust health, going to the gym three times a week. Today I wake in pain due to the return of the mysterious orc foot, which has seized-up my ankle to makes walking slow and painful. Loped only as far as Boots to by some gel to free up my incredibly ulcerated mouth enough to eat. I am an utter wreck. I hate it. However made some good progress on the rheumatoid arthritis writing during the day. After I finished this I simply hobbled the few yards to the Battle of Trafalgar where I met First Matie and her pal Nick. We three had a nice chat, sitting in the garden in the spotting rain for an hour before Kate returned to the smoke. Nick is an interesting guy, a singer songwriter by nature, who was telling us about the frustratingly laid back approach of certain young Brighton musicians. Turns out Nick is a Cylon-loving BSG head too. Unable to face standing around in my kitchen, I loped to the Chinese takeaway and spent the evening trembling till...

Frak! Woken by South London gangsters pelting down the Twitten with police in pursuit, wheezing directions into their walkie talkies at 4:30am. What a way to earn a living. Wasted lots of time faffing about. Did a mindmap of things which helped a bit. Went to the gym for a session of the Hulk legs machine, and uphill loping on the treadmill. I am enjoying it, and look forward to going to the gym. My God, what is happening to me? Lorraine has almost finished Skelton Yawngrave and is providing lots of good feedback. She's a gem. A cheery interlude this afternoon, when Anna came around for a cup of tea and to show Klaudia and Oskar my fish. Oskar particularly fancying my gold sucking loach, and pressing his nose against the glass. Zombied out this evening watching DVDs of Battlestar Galactica . This is the series made in 2004, and frak me it's good. Having chewed through my phone recharger wire, necessitating a wire wiggling nightmare just to half recharge my phone, Calliope has ...

Song of the farmers Unspleeping in the airnest, so up early to work before everyone got up. Salty the cat biting me as I typed. After breakfast we all watched the end of the Seven Samurai. At the end of the film, having lost four of their number in the battle, the Samurai wander off as the ungrateful farmers sing lustily while planting rice. "Another defeat," says one grimly. Splendidly miserablist. Nice to hang out with everyone in sunny Edgware. Later Toby took the train with me as far as St Pancras (aka St Pancreas by almost everyone), then I listened to an In Our Time podcast about of early Islam and the schism between Shia and Sunny on the way back to Brighton. The history of religion is just a filthy power struggle. A dapper Nick Cave in the same carriage. Resisted the temptation to intrude on his personal space, just as he - somehow - managed to resist the temptation to intrude on mine. Much needed sleep on my gold sofa despite Calliope persistently kneading me. Th...