under another sun

More podcast recording with Robin this morning:  the what we are reading section, and reaction to Charlotte's interview. Robin talking about La Vita Nuova by Dante, and me chatting about audiobooks by John Cooper Clarke and Joy Harjo. Robin is not interviewing her next victim till tomorrow, and so we decided to go with Charlotte for this week, so it means I'm leading on this episode again, so quite a bit of editing to do in the next couple of days.   Charlotte saying she so wanted a beer with me, Robin, SJB and Mr Bone. That would be a fine thing. A proper Blue Monday this year. Not that I heard anyone on the radio mention it. Doing my best not to feel bleak and mid-winterish, but glum dissatisfaction now settling on me and my own writing like a flock of malign birds. I have so many promising ideas, that I slowly prune to death; a reductio ad absurdum.  A news clip of folks enjoying life in Guernsey, with no social distancing, made my personal little heaven seem even more...

Blue Monday was fine for me. Parts of the short story I have been working on fell nicely into place, when I joined two unsatisfactory things I had written before to make one satisfying whole. Busied myself with this and a few other bits of admin and emails, then to the gym this afternoon where I had a decent workout. Lorraine home in good time and I had a chat with her before going out for a cheeky curry with Ben and Rick. Rick drove us to the Elizabethan Curry House and we had a nice meal there, then back to Rick's place (just around the corner from me) for a cup of tea. Ben had just been on a weekend course on divine geometry, looking at Persian patterns. It required drawing millions of circles and not going mad. He said it was quite stressful but he learned a lot. Rick I learned works voluntarily for Crimestoppers committee, and before his retirement was responsible for security for the region's Post Offices and Royal Mail. Talking about climate change and so on.  The...

Up on with Monday. Talk of Blue Monday again, not that I buy into these things, but with dark grey skies and the rain pouring out of it, I counted my lucky stars that I wasn't pressed in a train somewhere in South London. Hus came around with a friend and pulled up the floorboards in the hallway. Turns out it wasn't as bad as I feared. After a few hours work, they had fixed it. He is coming around tomorrow just to finish off. It did mean the day was full of banging and crashing which didn't help my concentration any. At one point they left to buy wood, and Calliope of course dived into the hole and disappeared for quite a while, leaving me to picture her being boarded in. But she emerged covered in dust some time later. I continued the Great Sort Out , and going through various files and throwing stuff out, and tidying cupboards. It feels quite good. Also working on poems and having a long cold look at all my current activities. I spoke to Mum too, and Mas is still in h...

Blue Monday Off to London, pausing only to grip Calliope underneath my arm like bagpipes to eyedrop her. Today a candidate for the most depressing day of the year and the rain was certainly hosing down when I trudged from Hammersmith tube station. Once in the agency, however, things were tolerable and it helped to be briefed by Rick who is an old friend. There are far fewer people I know there now, which makes me feel more neutral about it as I worked on three websites for a pitch about a ghastly disease with a glum designer. A brisk solitary walk along the river at lunchtime, after my peck of hummus and tomato for lunch. Met another old colleague Helen for a coffee. She is leaving the agency soon, but persuaded me to write some brochures over the next couple of weeks. These, however, can be done from home and will boost the Kenny coffers. Longing on the train to be on the gold sofa scarfing a bowl of bean jar and watching Frasier. I don't ask for much in this world. Spoke to Lorr...