under another sun

Up and early at my desk, working on cattle fertility before 8. Anton phoned to shower me with beef-based puns. Working quietly and methodically on concepts, which is my favourite thing. At one point looking at La Vache qui rit for inspiration. My client was happy with what I delivered. All done by midday. Back on my stuff in the afternoon. Also caught up with a TV documentary by Richard Fortey, whose book Trilobite! An eyewitness to history I enjoyed a few years ago. This programme was about the Cambrian fossils in Canada's Burgess Shale high up in the mountains, which I have been reading about for a while now. I has miraculously preserved fossils of soft tissue so that you can see trilobite legs for example. Apparently this may have been due to everything being buried in some kind of landslide into the sea. It featured one of my personal favourites, the predatory  Anomalocaris . Lorraine out being a school governor tonight. I played about with the monologue I am writing abou...

Up to the smoke again. Reading The End of The Party by Andrew Rawnsley again. A very interesting read, Gordon Brown comes out of it very badly. Work fine, snuck out at lunch with First Matie who went off looking at shoes, while I bought stuff and returned to work to find a fascinating website at lunchtime a Virtual Sea Odyssey , showing the Burgess Shale creatures of the Pre-Cambrian ocean. A really interesting experience, and one featuring my favourite extinct animal: Anomalocaris. After work sped off to Edgware to see Mum and Mas, lots of chatting and we had an enjoyable evening catching up with the gossip, looking at candles, and drinking some wine, and as a special treat I got Christmas pudding and custard, which I wasn't expecting. Played mum some Laura Mvula, which she enjoyed. Early night, chatting to Lorraine before bed.

Tidying and sorting this morning before heading off into the cold for a walk. Went to the cafe and worked there for three hours drinking Earl Grey tea and working productively on the business book. Decided then to go for a walk down to the sea and onto the pier. Mooched along listening to tales of student unrest in 1974-79 in Seasons in the Sun . There were one or two occupations while I was Warwick a few years later, but I always failed to see how the occupation of an administration room by a couple of dozen middle class kids was going to bring international capitalism to its knees. After a while I realised the cold was rather penetrating, and despite having several layers, cap and scarf I was pleased to clamber onto a bus and get home. Listened to my book, and chatted to mum for some time in the afternoon. Lorraine at a meeting where she is a Governator of a school, and when she returned late we zoomed off to the comfort and safety of the Shahi for a cheeky curry and a couple...