under another sun

Sunny and warm today, Lorraine, Beth and I caught a bus into town. I went off on my own, and walking along New Road and standing in the Pavilion Gardens after a haircut,  suddenly felt more cheery than I can remember feeling in some time. Popped into the Marwood Cafe and read some poetry there while sipping black coffee. John McCullough's new book, in which there is lots to admire. Then The Interpreter's House , which I have just subscribed to and has a positive review of The Nightwork in it plus poems by Robin, Sarah and Siegfried and a nice review of Robin's pamphlet too. Beth and Lorraine joined me in there as they had been shopping, mainly for Beth's upcoming holiday in Portugal with her dad's family. Then, as summer seems to have started, we bought some delicious ice creams from Boho Gelato and sat briefly in the Pavilion Gardens to eat them before bussing home. Home, later and everyone fell asleep due to various sore throats, colds and so on. Lorraine and ...

Lorraine working at home all day. I find I can work happily with her working at the next desk. At lunchtime a walk to Maplins, which is bizarrely one of Lorraine's favourite shops. Then Arkwrights to buy some lunch before getting back to work.   To the gym for the third day in a row. Sunny in the Old Church Hall, but walking into town was to walk into some quite thick fog rolling in from the sea. Made me think of that movie, The Fog where long dead pirates emerge from the fog to revenge themselves on a costal town. Lorraine out teaching governors tonight, and I ventured out again to meet Anton in the Batty. A night on the tiles and of much discussion. Drawn to the Twin Peaksy ambience of the Northern Lights again, which had a musicians of sorts upstairs, we went upstairs to see them, one guy singing who was not so hot. Downstairs to some flavoured vodka. Anton mentioning at the end of the night that he had not eaten all day.  I saw him into a taxi and walked home, skilful...

Up early and working hard all day at my cat-plagued desk. Big decisions on the book. Decided one of the sections was all wrong and have cut it, and have now to replace it. Beth and John leaving for London at noon. A good day's work, and I spoke to Mum on FaceTime and heard too from my old school friend Mark who I've not seen for a few years. Lorraine out singing with the Hullaballoos tonight, and I walked her to the venue and then mooched past the Pavilion down to the sea, and looked at the moon on its back. A comparatively calm night, the pier closed and lightless, the tide out and lines of white-tipped waves coming in from the sea. A few stars visible when you escaped the immediate light pollution. Good to have an hour's walk after being at my desk all day. Home, and wrote something for Claudius about the Shakespeare Trio, listened to a 15 minute Radio 4 thing about failure before Lorraine returned. Anne Enright was talking about how Flann O'Brien had his manuscri...

Lorraine off work now too. So we are both feeling officially holidayish. She up and off to Hove to have her hair lovingly tended to. After going to the gym in the morning I met Lorraine, with gleaming sleek hair, outside the Pavilion. We went inside to meet Sarah, who took us through again for a look at the Red Room, which I'd not seen. Lovely venerable room, with paintings of the nobility and plush touches of the Orientalism that pervades the whole building.  Sarah then walked us through to the Music Room, which although Id seen it before, I was still taken aback at the visual feast it represents, and it will be a marvellous backdrop to the doings of Saturday, which is where we'll have some snaps taken. Meanwhile my solicitor says things seem to be on the move and I authorised her today to sign the contract on my behalf. This means, God willing, that the sale will go through in the next few weeks. Officially parking the whole house sale malarkey and its attendant stress ti...

Another stress peak : L and I discussing the wedding this morning wondered if we had paid the balance to the pavilion for the ceremony. We discovered we hadn't and the deadline for such matters had passed. Nobody on the phone, so we went down to the Pavilion itself. Very nice people there one of whom looked on their computer system for us, only to find that there were other people booked in our slot. Lorraine looking as if she was going to cry at people quite a lot. I began mentally composing the email to explain there was a change of plan, and we would actually be getting married in a car park somewhere on a different day. However, after twenty minutes or so it turned this was a system glitch and everything should be fine and be confirmed on Monday morning. Went to the Cricketers for a sit down, and a soft drink to gather ourselves and then off to the jewellers to collect our rings. Mine was a little tight still but loosening it was a matter of seconds. Lorraine's wedding ...

Hello sunshine Another potentially long running freelance opportunity showed itself today, which was good news and I followed it up with enthusiasm. Otherwise sent out a few more albums and worked on the new Matt piece. This started really well, but is beginning to collapse under the weight of its contradictions, so I have had to deconstruct everything I have written so far. Out and about in the sunshine, and I spent an enjoyable hour in the Marwood for a change of scene chinstroking and changed about three lines. Into my new barbers but today's barber was heavy-handed and my hair is only just passable. Betty at home for most of the day on the gold sofa watching TV with her leg up. Nice to chat to her and bring her cups of tea. Below everyone creeping out into the sunshine. Lunchtime in the Pavilion Gardens.

Election day Broke off early to vote. Returning from the polling station, I passed one of my Twitten neighbours who asked me if I'd voted. I said, yes, but that none of them deserved it. And he said he was off to choose the best of a bad bunch. Hardly startling, but the kind of conversation I suspect was played out a million times around the country. The reputation of politicians has utterly nose dived in this country in the last year. In my constituency of Brighton Pavilion, the leading candidates were Caroline Lucas, leader of the Green party, and Nancy Platts for Labour. I overcame my Brown nausea to vote for Labour, tribal loyalties proving impossible to overcome. But I am sympathetic to the Greens too, and Lucas has had an enormous amount of publicity lately, and seems a competent politician and likely to become Britain's first Green MP. Not that that is any kind of recommendation. Contacted twice by wild eyed Labour canvassers during the day, which clearly means it is tig...