under another sun

Up early, and writing, while Lorraine made off to do Storytime in the Library. When she got back we caught a train to Brighton. We had a fresh and zesty lunch at Wahaca restaurant, and we drank some kind of fruity water with hibiscus, and lots of lovely bits of picky food. Lorraine popped off to do some lengthy bank business, I went to Caffè Nero and had a cup of coffee and stared blankly at my notebook.  I was thinking about something that Brian Eno wrote in A Year With Swollen Appendices , about the book you have already written.  I have several projects that are near the touchline, I just need to focus and do some hard work. I have quite a few published short stories, which I could collect for example. Lorraine found me and we mooched happily through the Lanes, ending up in a shop called Julian Stephens. Lorraine made magpie noises while looking at the shiny things, and soon I bought a nice ring as a late birthday present.  Then we walked up to the Evening Star where w...

Felt sluggish and struggled to achieve anything. Lorraine working from home first thing, before heading off to school to start the penultimate week. I had an unappetising smorgasbord of frogs to dine on accountant/business stuff/ podcasting preparation/billing the agency for the last job/a Sainsbury's delivery/hoovering and chatting to two chirpy young ladies from Dusty Dolls Cleaning, who come around to give the house a once over. I squeezed in a couple of walks too, however.  No footie tonight, so Lorraine and I sat on the sofa, Lorraine playing her Nintendo, and me rereading A Year With Swollen Appendices , by Brian Eno while sipping a ginger beer. It is one of the few books that have been a lasting inspiration. And I channeled my inner Anton, and rebought it from Amazon in its 25 anniversary reissue in a hard cover, with gold and black ribbons, and the appendices printed on pink paper, and today read what he was doing in January 1995, which included recording an album with Davi...

Up early and carrying out a box of tools to Max's car as I saw Lorraine off for the day. She will be able to drive herself to school in a few weeks. Max has been great. Off out for a walk a little before noon, wearing sunglasses as the sun was low and bright and I was walking due south to the sea. Listening to an improving self-help book on self esteem. Good to read these kinds of things from time to time, as they are full of common sense reminders. Reached the calm sea, and popped into the Sea Life centre again, and even had a cup of coffee while gazing at a big tank full of grey mullet, rays, dogfish, guilthead bream, and a large ballan wrasse. I figure if I go there a few times I shall have a brilliant idea. Then a brief crunch about on the pebbles under the pier, and I walked home to continue my work having completed my 10k paces. Discovered Music For Installations today on Spotify by Eno. Mostly a collection of generative music, it includes the music from the installation...

Walked to Hove this morning to visit the Montefiore hospital. Thankfully not from any medical necessity,  but for my Waiting Room project.  I met Tom Collins, a helpful guy who showed me the reception area and then took me to the quiet room. Both places have installations by Brian Eno. One in the reception area called 77 million paintings for Montefiore, which is an endlessly changing electronic image, with tranquil Eno ambient music. I've never seen such a pleasant waiting room, not just the Eno stuff, but flowers, and pleasant staff and free teas and coffees. The wonders of private medicine. The Quiet Room, as its name suggested, a dark room, with the eno ambient music and a big panel with changing soft light. Simple but tremendously effective. I looked in the visitor's books in both places and they were full of compliments about how helpful these environments patients found these.  My estimation of Eno, already high, continues to grow. On a hospital note, Carl releas...

Worked on my Waiting Rooms project, and set up an appointment with the marketing department at a local private hospital where there is an installation in the waiting room by Brian Eno. Texts from Keith, who I will meet up with soon. Have to get into London and start schmoozing again soon. Bit the bullet and signed up to continue my stained glass studies again. Also got in touch with the doctor's about swollen glands, I have to wait two weeks for an appointment. Meanwhile the swollen glands seem to be subsiding a bit.   A note from Antony Mair, who will use a quote from me on the jacket of his new book. Below here is a photo of me by the miniature train we rode on for Pat's birthday, the photo taken by Beth. Gives you an idea of how wee the train was. I also went for a walk in the afternoon, attempting to get fitter. Not cold, but ominous looking weather... View towards the sea, and a view towards Brighton's football stadium. Loving having Lorraine at home, an...

Hatches thoroughly battened down this afternoon, with a good deal of icy rain turning to sleet and a bit of snow by the time Lorraine got home. She'd sent everyone home on time from school. I spent the lovely day at my desk fiddling with poems and working on the novel MS, apart from a quick toddle to the bread shop, and a quick chat with mum. Watching Trump's press conference, it occurred to me that the Americans have actually elected the Devil. It is extraordinary that such a nakedly evil presence has gained such power in this world. A glimpse out of the kitchen window in the evening. Didn't fancy it, and the cats when forced to go out for reasons of personal hygiene, soon bolted back in looking affronted. Listening to music off and on today. Working to Reflection by Brian Eno, one of his better ambient pieces, which is praise indeed, and Bowie's Blackstar album, his final one, which is a quite jazzy in places. The song   Blackstar itself is becoming a favourit...

Mason being released back into the wild again today. Spoke to Mum a couple of times, and he arrived  later in the day. Not the challenges are around making sure he is okay in the house. Social services have been in touch, and there will be people to help him get up and bathed and so on for the first days of his return. In harness writing another tranche of the Centaur opera. Trotted slowly along, using the Robert Graves version of the myths as template, a skirmish between Heracles and the Centaurs. Heracles is beastly to them, first stealing their wine then killing lots of them. Listening to Brian Eno's lovely new ambient piece, Reflection , on Spotify during the day. I find Eno an inspiring person altogether, and his ambient stuff is the best thing to work to I know. Reflection is one of his best. I also took three walks to ensure I'd walked my 10k paces. Listening to a 'Great Lives' podcast about C.S. Lewis.  I learned that Tolkien had modelled the way the Ents...

Barely slept due to infernal neck. Ended up Keith Richards style taking various drugs including a diazepam early in the morning and as a consequence bleary but strangely calm this morning.  Lorraine crept out quietly without waking me, as she sloped off to work. Once I was up, working sporadically with a hot bean bag on my neck and sitting about as if having a plank up my jumper. Working all day again on Chad stuff. Men arrived bearing a new sideboard, chairs and a table. They asked me if I wanted them to assemble the table. I readily assented and it took them about half an hour to put four legs on. It all looks pretty smart though, and if I wasn't in pain, exhausted and stressed I would have probably enjoyed it a bit more. A nice email from my poet pal Charlotte Gann this morning. I sent her a moany email, which she later said she found therapeutic, and both enthused about Brian Eno. A walk in the afternoon to maintain sanity.  Beth chaperoning, and Lorraine pilates lat...

Another deluge, worked hard on the book all day. Talking briefly to Mum and Mas and to Sonia. I have reached another pocket of nonsense in the text which needs some unpicking. Struggling with this for much of the afternoon. At around 4:30 I decided to think about something else for a bit and put on one of Brian Eno's ambient pieces called Neroli: Thinking Music which was bonging pleasantly and I was listening to the rain on the roof, which went nicely with the music, and suddenly I found myself feeling incredibly happy and at one with myself and the world. Just to be able to sit at my desk and listen to the rain falling seemed an incredibly lucky thing. Looked up what Neroli was, and it is a kind of a sweet smelling plant oil produced from the blossom of the bitter orange tree. Lorraine teaching school governors this evening, and I went out with Anton. Met him in the Great Eastern and then we went out into the deluge to The Mash Tun where Anton's research led us to two del...

Listening to Lux, the album by Brian Eno returning to his ambient style. I love it.  I listen to Eno's ambient work constantly when I am working. Slow start to the day, and I slept till 8:30 at least. Wonderful. Pottering around doing low level house stuff, and folding away my new clothes. A trip to Sainsbury's where we inadvertently bought loads of booze, and we cooked a roast tonight and vegged before the TV again. Lorraine and I walking in the park this afternoon, all golden and long shadowed. I love just mooching about with her.  I took lots of snaps only to discover I had a patch of greasy stuff on my lens, but these weren't too bad: the widespread carpet of spider silk, and one of the doors into the walled garden we love so much.

Woke up convinced Lorraine preferred TV adventurer  Bear Grylls to me after a vivid dream. The fact that L and I know little about him only added to the strangeness of this.  Got to work accompanied by the screeching of bricks being cut in half under the infernal viaduct. Spent the day working on revamping my personal website. My cyberpresence has been a long-running sore, unfocused and confusing. I realised this is because I am eclectic in what I do and this should be seen as the defining thing. I love Brian Eno's description of himself as 'a drifting clarifier'. In the afternoon off to Marwood cafe to meet Anna for a long chat over coffee and a slice of cake each. Then home via Sainsbury's to cook a vegetarian chilli for Lorraine. Also prescribed chocolate for Lorraine. Below: the rain continues unabashed. Quite like the murkiness this brings. Brighton is hilly, so the tops of streets disappear, and individual roofs penetrate into...

Photographs Hard disk passed away in the night. A few words were said, followed by an arm-thrashing dance. (Typing this on old steam-driven laptop I'd given to Lorraine). Limbo-ish day. Rehearsed my lines for This Concert for some hours in the morning then followed Brian Eno’s advice: if in doubt, tidy up. Spoke to Mum and Mas. Mum said she had been working on her heads. This summons several images and only after some time do large painted big cat heads come to mind. In the afternoon I went to see Adrian and Di. Adrian showed me the shots he had taken. Miraculously, given there were minuscule amounts of light in the place, he has created some wonderfully evocative images for us. In one or two I don’t look too porcine, which is nice. Some lovely shots of Matt conducting and looking intense. Enjoyable chat with Adrian. Di saying that this month would bring abundance for a Chinese feng shui reason. I hope she's right. Chastened by man mountain pictures, sped off to the gym for ...

Scarring the heart All day writing the website on atrial fibrillation and strokes. Fairly cheerful about it, though this was my ninth day of work without a break. For a workshy dilettante this is something of a strain, consequently felt rather washed out by the end of the day. Learned however about surgery for fibrillating hearts, where the surgeon scores the tissue of the atria, and the resultant scars block the pathway of faulty electric messages allowing the heart to resume a normal rhythm. The ingenuity and practicality of medical minds amazes me sometimes. I treated myself to his new CD Small craft on a milk sea by Brian Eno which is beautiful and uncharacteristically fierce in parts. Also bought Thursday Afternoon , which is one of his hour-long plinky ambient things that are perfect to work with. An inspiring aural armchair. Somewhat braindead this evening. Cooked a veggie chilli, watched Frasiers and football with Lorraine and started The Mind in the Cave by David Lewis-Willi...