under another sun

Bloody hot. In fact the hottest day in the UK ever, 38.7 recorded in Cambridge, that is 101.6 F  in old money.   Lorraine working from home for a bit, before taking time off to proof What You Look For for me, and she made a couple of useful suggestions, before I sent the thing off to Bloodbath magazine. I was then officially done. We bussed over to Beth and John this evening and were fed roast chicken and veggies and couscous and played Euchure. Lorraine also took a bottle of champagne she had been saving, as now her Ofsted inspection success is official, and her school is officially 'good'. Bussed home and home, happy to not have to get up tomorrow. Boris the evil clown no forging a cabinet of the maddest and most far right politicians on offer, looking to drive Brexit through even on a self-immolating no deal basis. Meanwhile THE CLIMATE. Christ. I made this nonsense a few months ago, below, but it seems more appropriate than ever. The other guy is Nero.

Slightly hungover this morning, after a night out with my musician mates. A glorious blue skied day, with temperatures reaching over 20C, the highest recorded winter temperature in the UK. As our M.P., the UK parliament's only Green MP Caroline Lucas said today, 'This isn't some jovial Guinness World Record. This is a climate emergency.' Trying not to get sucked into doomy feelings about a sunny day. I walked into town at lunchtime, to pick up a prescription and return a library book, and also lurk in Waterstones looking at about ten books I want. Walking back through the park I passed a couple with a baby, the man wearing flip-flops and shorts. Bumped into Philippa from next door, who had just taken little Magnus to the cinema. Chatted to Mum. Not too much going on. Also had a long chat with Bob, both of us with mixed feelings about the whole big birthday thing coming this Autumn. Heard about the demise of Mark Hollis today, who was the key composer in a group ca...

Up early and eating porridge with Lorraine.  I felt I was beginning again today, albeit it is a very sluggish reboot, a week after Janet died. The gruelling challenges of the last month or so done with, I now have to start getting things done, but my energy is low and I feel thin-skinned. The news all about climate catastrophe. I had two walks, loving the autumn colours despite a dreary day, and regained control of my desk and my in-basket, and threw things in bins. This seemed to be enough for the first day. I found I couldn't face thinking about where I'm going to get my next bit of freelance work from, let alone my own writing. I watched a Netflix documentary about Rachel Dolezal called The Rachel Divide.   It is a case that picks at the running sores of identity and has interested me for a while. Rachel is a white American woman, whose abusive and highly-religious parents adopted lots of black kids. Hating her white parents and band protecting her adopted brothers a...

The heat is on I'm hoping The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's findings actually prompt some concerted action in the world. Will it get major governments (like the US) to admit climate change is happening? All the rest of us have to do is look out into the nearest garden. Below is a shot taken in Magravine Cemetery this morning of spring bulbs in full bloom. They started in January - the first full month of winter . I find it very disturbing. I was overheating too. Arrived early to do some urgent work to discover I had been locked out of all the computer systems for not completing my timesheets. They had been completed and I had made special efforts the day before so I wouldn't be locked out. Wasted an hour shouting at people, making phone calls and finally exploding with rage until it was sorted. Then, racing against time, I lost the same piece of copy twice due a software crash. Then after completely writing it from scratch the for the second time, the origina...