under another sun

Up with Lorraine, then working quietly on the job from Paris, it's a branding job so there was a fair amount of mind mapping and thinking involved. In the 'd'oh typical' department was offered some work next week by Pat, but had to decline due to my school visits. The news dominated by coronavirus, making me wish, not for the first time, that I wasn't a hypochondriac. In the evening I met beermonsters Steve and Nick in the Evening Star, and then we sauntered down to see Silvana and Richard playing as Bossa Love in the sparsely populated, slightly melancholy Dorset.  I suggested they need some portable lights as they were poked unlit in a dim corner. Toasted Glen's memory as it would have been his birthday today. Cheery talking to my pals though. Home for cheese on toast.

A day indoors. I downloaded photos of Bossa Love, and made an initial selection of those. Beth and Lorraine zoomed off to buy a laptop for Beth. In the afternoon Lorraine and I conducted The Great Utilities Review, and looked at what we were paying for everything and did calculations and so on. Weirdly taking the skeletons from the closet and giving them a thorough examination made me feel quite good. It went on to inspire an epic bout of filing. Fairly soon I had a smooth desk and felt far more in control of life, and tucked into our roast chicken dinner with gusto.  Both Lorraine and I felt that the weekend had been too short, however.

A fairly peaceful start to the day, up fairly late. Pottering about doing things in the house. Lorraine out this evening to a ball for school. No other teachers were bringing their partners, so I was given a pass for the evening.  Lorraine looked very glamorous in a black dress and her red shoes from our wedding. I told her not to speak to any strange men. Anton and I sloped off to have drinks in Brighton and Hove instead. Went to a variety of bars and a new burger place, where I had an admirable chicken burger and rosemary fries. We popped into a ghastly venue on Western Road, to see Bossa Love. We shouldered our way through security, to find we were the only punters. A beer, and sat at a table right infront of Richard and Silvana. It was all nice enough. We left after about half an hour, not a great feeling to be the entire audience walking out. Ended up at the out of the way Crescent, where some stag party folks talked to us, and at one point hoped to recruit us in their eve...

Up with Lorraine and the larks and doing some ideas for my French clients for several hours this morning. This all sent off, I walked over to Richard's new flat, phoned en route by Val to discuss the concepts. Arrived at and found him and Silvana ready to be photographed. Fortunately it was a glorious day. We went into St Ann's Well gardens, right by where Richard now is, but there were no good places. We went down to the sea, and I was able to take a few snaps of them. Richard not in his happy place being photographed but he relaxed eventually. As I was doing this, the new clients called asking for some copy tweaks in the middle of this, so had to nip home fairly smartly afterwards to get that work done and returned. Star Trek tonight, with Lorraine, who was somewhat bushed having started a sore throat yesterday. An early night. Below some snaps I took of Richard and Silvana -- aka Bossa Love.

Up and working early on the project for my Parisienne pals, but only after I had blurted down in about half an hour, a complete short story of about a twelve hundred words. Wrote itself guv'. Currently called The Dream House . Broke off for a bit after lunch to zoom off to Preston Street to take photos of Silvana and Richard, as Richard asked me to help. They have a Bossa Nova duo, called Bossa Love. Felt rather stressed by this as work was full on, and they were both looking at me a bit blankly. The venue, called The Medusa, was a nice little bar, and the owner very friendly. However it was a very dark and cluttered interior. I took them outside but it was raining, so all in all not much joy. Leaped on a bus and then made it home quickly and was able to resume work on the animal health business which I sent off at the end of the day. The day a bit of a slog. Very pleased to see Lorraine home a bit earlier than usual, who sorted out some salmon and salad and couscous for our d...