under another sun

Very saddened to hear that Craig died this morning. Many heartbroken responses on WhatsApp, and Facebook. Although I'd not seen too much of him lately, we had swapped messages a few weeks ago as I had invited him to my party. Shortly before he told me he had been diagnosed with tumours. He spent the next few weeks in hospital and died peacefully and in no pain. His wife Mel and his very close pals are devastated. My favourite memory of him was when he came to Guernsey on my 50th as a surprise package with Matty boy and Katie, Lorraine having secretly liaised with them. Craig's open-hearted, open-minded delight in the island I love was typical of him. I loved his gravelly Minnesota voice too, and he was a natural storyteller. A lovely human. This all put me off my stride a bit, and I did not feel like writing today. Instead, as Lorraine had taken the afternoon off to go with Maureen to the doctor about her knees and hips and walking. So I hopped aboard too, and we drove across...

Bad news about Craig's health this morning. I would like to go to see him but was advised by his closer friends that he and Mel have too much to deal with at the moment, and treatments and so on are all being sorted. Lorraine and I in contrast, were able to have a relaxed Friday, and count our blessings. I did some writing too on Grace 2. Lorraine and I went shopping in Lidl, but our journey back was delayed due to a bomb scare of a suspect package on a street. This turned out to be nothing. Began reading the book that Sarah Barnsley bought me called The Happiness Trap , which is rather a good book I think. I also read some H.P. Lovecraft for a bit of horror -- starting a really good story (thankfully without his obnoxious racism) called The Whisperer in the Dark . Lorraine and I had a nice supper at home, and then popped over to The Cleveland, where we played cards in what may be in danger of becoming our new local, dog strewn as it is. Said hello to Stacy from the barbers. ...

So up at the De Trafford hotel and eating a Chef and Brewer breakfast downstairs before packing and getting ourselves sorted for the big wedding to be held at a farm near the village of Wincle, south of Macclesfield and in the edge of the peak district national park. All rather idyllic and a gorgeous drive there too. As we were early as we turned off the main road, near the farm, we squinted into the Royal Oak only to see Nicola and First Matie climbing out of a car. We parked up and had a cheery reunion over coffee and then a beer, and were joined by Lucy and Sean, other pals of Matt's. Then we then drove into what was described as the middle of nowhere and kept going through some achingly beautiful countryside and arrived at Barleyford Farm. Family friends of Matt and Isy who were getting married. The French Bloke and Craig pointing the way, both fairly refreshed already, to the barn field where we parked up and found our tent in a village of tents. Quickly changed in there, an...

Lorraine up early and off to get some physiotherapy for her lower back. The therapist lectured Lorraine about looking after herself better. Then L and I walked down to Preston Park from where we travelled up to Strand on the Green. Matty boy was having a few drinks for his birthday, with his pal Ian who has a similar birthday, in The City Barge. An easy journey. Nice and a bit weird to be with Lorraine in Chiswick. A cheery afternoon and evening. It was good to see Matt and Isy, and and their little Elsa and Tasha and Steve and their Freddie who is of course little Elsa's cousin of almost the same age. Not a massive baby fan, but found Elsa to be a superior baby in lots of respects. Poor Isy having a tough time with her second pregnancy, and feeling rough most of the time. I also got to chat with Craig and Mel, Robbie, who I'd not seen for a long time and who has just moved to Bristol. Also chatted to Andy, who I'd worked with in Tavistock Square who has been working on...

A bit of an intense day. Feeling very tired, and working hard too with Fernanda the Brazilian art director. A sustaining lunch of baked potato, beans and cheese then, after work, walked off to The Poetry Cafe. On the way there I was crossing a road, and the lights changed. A psychopath in a Addison Lee cab almost killed me, driving right at me at high speed, and forcing me to leap out of the way.  I banged on his window and shared some of my opinions while the driver grinned at me infuriatingly. It rattled me.  Arrived at the poetry cafe early and met Robin and one of her old school friends. Our two other poets for the night arrived.  Rishi very much flavour of the month poetry wise, who happens to work at my old agency in Hammersmith, and Anja arrived from Switzerland. Lorraine arrived early to help and be supportive.  In the audience Mum, Lakshmi and her pal Rachel, Craig and Mel and Karam arrived. Good to see Lakshmi, who I've not seen for some time, and C...

Lorraine and I up and off to London, for we were gathering at The City Barge on Strand on the Green. Funny how places keep cropping up in life. The Barge was a local  of mine, in a former life and as we made our way to the river I showed Lorraine places I'd lived in Chiswick. We were there to celebrate First Matie's departure for Hull where she is going to live for the foreseeable time for reasons of the heart. A gathering of friends in an upstairs room of the Barge, which is a good deal posher than when I lived nearby. A beautiful room looking down on the river, where we spent the afternoon and evening eating and making merry. Attendees were Kate (naturally) and many of her mates, who mostly are my mates too. Matty boy (who seemed to have done most of the organisation as usual) and Isy and the rather cute baby Elsie, The French Bloke and Max, Mel and Craig, Nicola, Sarah and Sylvie, Dan, Ian, Gareth, Stephen, and the lovely Matt Hindley arrived later. Some speeches were ma...

A morning spent entirely in bed, apart from when I briefly put some clothes on and walked around the corner to Arkwrights to buy some bread. L & I had toast and tea in bed, dozed, and chatted and read papers and played with cats. Then into Brighton to meet Matt, Craig and Mel, who were drinking a bottle of prosecco in the Brighton Tavern. Good to see Craig and Mel, we seemed in excellent spirits. Craig talking about a new and exciting job he was interviewing for, nice to meet Mel again who I really like.  Craig has one of those voices, with his Minnesota accent, that I could listen to for a long time. He should be on the radio. Off to the Sussex Yeoman for lunch, where we met Katie. Unfortunately Kate visibly upset having just spoken on the phone to Graeme who had told her he has cancer. The others knew having seen him a few days before.  Lorraine and I hadn't known either, so naturally this news very unwelcome and something of a sombre toast to Graeme and a speedy rec...

Lorraine's birthday today. I gave her my present, which was an iPad, and she literally cried with happiness which was good to see. She had loads of cards to open too. Up for a breakfast, I had Crastor kippers, which were wonderful. Understandably Lorraine and I had a rather delicate start to the day. But once we were up and running, we decided to take ourselves to Alnwick Gardens, which are spectacular as you can glean from some of the photos below. The rain held off. We had just emerged from the bamboo labyrinth when we bumped into Lorraine's pal Jess and Andrew, plus Jess's daughters and mother in law. This completely random as we were all over 350 miles from home. Met them in the cafe later for birthday cake and coffee. It was a real treat for Lorraine to have Jess just appear. It was our third coincidental event of the weekend. Lorraine absolutely loved being in the gardens. It was really well designed, with an amusing tour around deadly plants, and a lovely wall...

Lorraine and my B&B is called Orinsay, and we had a good night’s sleep. Reading Jung in bed and his discussion of synchronicity and coincidence. Breakfast was delicious and even included haggis alongside local sausages, eggs, bacon, mushrooms, tomatoes.   All ingredients excellent. Lorraine and I chatting to Ian, a pal of Craig and Mel’s who was staying at Orinsay too. He mentioned Strand on the Green where Matt, Graeme and Kate live (and I lived for many years) and I happened to glance above his head and noticed that the painting above his head was of Strand on the Green and Kew Bridge. Quite a coincidence. Lorraine walked in the castle grounds, shopped and later found a cafe for a light lunch. Waiting for Lorraine outside a nosebleed inducing  shop, I turned around and realised I was looking at the shop of Gordon Caris who mends watches and clocks, the shop only opens two days a week, Thursdays and Fridays and was empty as today was a Saturday. Gordon Cari...

A frenzy of packing and a rush to Brighton station. Then a fairly easy journey to London, across London to Kings Cross and then we caught the Edinburgh train for Alnmouth Station for Alnwick  close to the Scottish border, which Craig had fallen in love with as an exchange student. Heavy rain as we descended from the train, and jumped into a taxi with Sylvia and a friend for the ten minute drive into town. A pleasant bed and breakfast and, after settling in, we took a walk to Barter Books ,  built in the old railway station building, complete with model trains rattling above some of the shelves of second hand books. A secondhand bookshop isn't the best place to find my current obsessions of contemporary findings in paleoanthropology and now Jung, as I have this idea that our blurry prehistory, is akin to our personal prehistory.   I was reading Jung: A Very Short Introduction by Anthony Stephens on my kindle on the train, and it is really exciting me. I hav...