under another sun

A cold morning, with a nasty north wind blowing. A happy one for me, as when I went to bed my ankle was beginning to feel weird, and I was expecting an outbreak of Orc-foot, but this did not happen. Also the coldy feelings that Lorraine and I both had over the weekend did not result in bad colds. Lorraine and I scrambled into her car, but the pesky thing wouldn't start. I had to set off walking to the station, while Lorraine arranged to be picked up and had to get the AA round in the evening to replace the battery, which was dead as dodo. Lorraine remarkably calm about all this. I got on my trains and as I stood up at Victoria, found I had been sitting next to Mandy, someone I'd worked with in Hammersmith years ago. Quick chat with her, before plunging down into the tube. Work was fine, if dull. Work to be done, though. Short walk by the canal, eating chicken and avocado sandwich.  Home, reading a book called Mister Pip , by Lloyd Jones that Dawn had given it to me for my b...

Up early for a Saturday. Lorraine got in touch with Cass, and by luck (for us) he had a job fall through next week so is able to decorate the big bedroom and the spare one for us next week. I went into town to pick up the wallpaper Lorraine had ordered from the post office and have a haircut. The barber doing a dip as he circle around the back of your head with the mirror to avoid the bald spot. I called him on it, and we had a laugh. Then home, both Lorraine and I lacking energy, and Lorraine feeling coldy. We went off in the afternoon to Hove, to talk about paint in a paint shop, and take five big bags of Beth's clothes and shoes to Martlets Hospice charity shop. Then we picked up Beth from teaching. We sat in the car park listening to the radio for ten minutes and talking about what the radio had mentioned, 'locker room chat of men'. I never speak to anyone in locker rooms. We looked at the i360 lit up like a UFO. I took an iPhone snap of it but it simply did not come ...

Lorraine springing out of bed at six in the morning, and off to work fairly pronto. This is effectively the first day of her job, but the teachers and children don't arrive till tomorrow and she spent it sorting out her office. I sprang up too, slightly more gingerly due to the back gyp, and was at my desk early too. Chad stuff today, though needing to work on gusto levels which were lowish. Cass arrived at 8 o'clock to decorate the front room, filling the larger craters in the plaster and so on to tuneless whistling and singing to the radio, which I found oddly comforting. A really hard working, friendly guy doing honest work as I skulked in the Kenny nerve centre. At lunch a brisk walk down to Miss Mole's Flower Emporium (Lorraine's favourite shop) to buy her a present. It doesn't open till tomorrow. Later Lorraine and I decided to go at the weekend, where I shall buy her a larger present. When she got home and we cooked a curry with chicken and cauliflower an...