under another sun

I learned from Julia that her and Bob's mum had died yesterday. Messaged Bob of course.  Happily working at my desk this morning. Generous amounts of rain hosing from the sky. Spoke to Mum, who was not enjoying the weather and was off to the Waggon pub later, for a bit of fun. She'd gone to another meeting in Edgware where they were playing Bingo which she thought was a bit of a pointless game. Also spoke to Anton, off this weekend taking his Mum to stay with Uncle John in Spain.  Sylwia here for a few hours making the house look spick and span. Lorraine at Pat and Maureen's to take a doctor's call with Maureen. At lunchtime I mooched around to Osborne's fish and chips, picked up a pensioner's box with two fish, and more fish and chips and Mushy peas and  had lunch with Pat and Maureen and Lorraine in the flat. The sea less lively today. I love how Pat is enjoying seeing the ferry come in and they both get quite caught up by all the goings on, like a yacht race ...

A busy day. Up and started work shortly after seven rushing to get everything ready for a 9:30 presentation. Good feedback and Keith and I were done before four.  I then jumped on a bus and was picked up by Robin at Eastbourne station. A short nip back to her place, and after saying howdy to Nick, went into her potting shed and did the wrap up recording for the podcast. All a bit hilarious, with Robin having a tiny sort of retro iPod with her, playing weird music. We drank a single beer there and then Robin asked Nick to take the photo of us below. From there off to a pub in Eastbourne, where we ate hot scotch eggs and had a couple of drinks before attention the open mic poetry session in the back. I ended up reading a couple of mine too. Received a good pep talk from Robin to about just getting on with it, re submissions. As we left she told the guy at Eastbourne that I should read there, and he agreed. Which was good. Farewell to Robin, and I mooched off to the bus stop and soon ...

Breakfast with Maureen and Pat, cereal and white toast with a molecule deep covering of Steve's  mirabelle jam. Off then after an interlude of getting ready, to Eastbourne. It's a lovely drive glimpsing the sea, over the water at Cuckmere Haven, passing Friston Forest and up towards Beachy Head and over with a view over Pevensy Bay of Eastbourne and Hastings in the distance. A spot of shopping in C&H fabrics -- a great favourite of Maureen's, which is sadly closing.  Then across the road to Starbucks to have a cup of coffee (as the cafe in C&H had been closed down already). Arrived moments before it began raining enormously. When this abated I hared off to M&S to buy some ready meals, and then we all mooched off to Eastbourne station. I noticed this time that Starbucks, which I went to lots in Brighton as it was a good place to write, has grim coffee.  Some confusion about which part of the train was going where. Maureen called the platform manager Sunshine! ...

Woke up a little bleary after arriving at Gatwick not long before midnight. Sam had waited up for us and it was nice to see him, all tanned from his holiday.  Up naturally early as we are still on Greek time, two hours ahead of the UK.  Pat and Maureen are here, having stayed for the two weeks to enjoy being in Brighton, and looking after the cats. Sam taking great care of them, and took them to the pier with Beth while we were away.  A few work and podcast matters to get on with, getting in touch with Keith and an agency pal to indicate readiness for work pencilled in, and with Robin about podcast matters.  At lunchtime we drove to Eastbourne with Pat and Maureen. Maureen wanted to do some shopping in C&H fabrics, and we each had a pot of tea and a scone in the C&H cafe. Lorraine and I also bought a fish jigsaw. Maureen, who I had spent a good deal of time joking with, quite ribald over my misshapen scone.  I saw them into their train at Eastbourne, and...

A chat with Sam today, talking about how he is feeling a good deal better these days and is looking forward to moving back with Jade at the end of the Summer. We are really pleased for him.   Exceedingly hot.Lorraine drove us off to Robin and Nick's garden party this afternoon. Very elegant, with two young folks serving Prosecco and alcohol free Nosecco to assorted poets and musicians. Robin and Nick have an enormous shared garden, the size of a small park. Robin was wearing a dress Lorraine almost wore, plus the same Panama hat as mine she bought from Mad Hatters too.  People sippingo in the shade. I enjoyed catching up with Janet, Jeremy, Antony and Stephen. Lorraine particularly chatting to Stephen lots. He lives in Newhaven which is the next little town along from Seaford.  Drove home with the air conditioning on in the car. Watched a bit of the Tory leadership debate, and watched the tumbleweed blowing through the voids where the ideas should have been. Spoke to Tobs...

Lorraine's penultimate week started today. A few bits of work, then the gym this morning. At teatime I made off to Eastbourne, where I met Robin at the station. We were going to do some recording in a pub, but every venue was not quite right in town. Every likely spot outside was also home to a straining air conditioner. We jumped in a taxi and went up to the Beachy Head pub. I had never been there before. We sat outside on a bench looking at the amazing view with Seaford head and Brighton in the far distance in the lowering sun. Bloody hot still. We clicked on the recorder and began our end of season banter, but were beset by dozens of flying ants crawling over us and the table and through the open packets of crisps. But it was a small price to pay. Then a celebratory pint to celebrate before a taxi (difficult to obtain) back. It was nice to actually meet in person to record, and also to actually slap ourselves on the back a bit for our efforts. I managed to miss my train at Eastb...

A day with Sue and John, scorchingly hot, and ending in big spots of rain, and thunder north of Birmingham.  Opted not to do anything arduous. I spent plenty of time reading in the back garden under a tree, Pascale Petit's Mama Amazonica, and also reading through a few copies of Supernatural Tales. Mysteriously, I managed to accumulate five thousand paces playing football with Whiskey in the back garden. The day hadn't begun well between us. She undid my laces as I came into the kitchen this morning, and bit my hands. However this little pup is a keen footballer, leaping over the ball and biting bits of surface of it while barking and leaping happily. Something unexpected was happening to me, I found myself positively liking this dog a great deal. I hadn't kicked a football in years, and this was great fun too, and I found myself dancing around the garden and laughing with the pup. Evening, Lorraine cooked curries supported by Sue her Sue chef, and we forked these down ...

A good day's work, plus a visit to the gym. Off in the evening to Eastbourne to see Beth in her rehearsal of Vagabond Skies . This is a musical based on Vincent Van Gough's life. The writer has been working on it for 20 years. The music was pretty good and the performances were jolly good. Beth leaping about in the chorus, being everything from a nun to a prostitute, and an art critic. Beth's pal and agent Sarah Dormandy is directing. And Dylan was in the chorus too. Good to get a bear hug from him. They are taking this show up have a London theatre showcase, to see if they can find backers and so on. I'm not a huge fan of musicals, but one about Vincent's life seems a pretty good idea, as he is such an archetype of the tortured artist. I sincerely hope it does well. Then off to the Crown and Anchor for a cheeky pint with Betty, and chatting to Susie, and I spoke to Natalia Farran, who was more usually a jazz singer, but had been drafted in. She was full of compli...

Saturday of interludes Fantastic not to have to get up at an ungodly hour. Instead Lorraine and I saw Dawn at 12:30. For Dawn is going to paint my house for me, and we walked about with Dawn suggesting all the things that needed doing, and me agreeing. Although she repeated her earlier rudeness about the orange yellow highlight I have in my downstairs. I left Dawny and Lorraine to it, for I had business in the Battle of Trafalgar where I met Richard and Dipak, the Shakeseare Trio, to discuss their CD launch. I offered a degree of unwanted marketing advice and other suggestions. But mainly it was quite pleasant to be sat outside in the hot suntrap of the Batty's back garden for an hour or so. Lorraine joined us after a while too, although sat at another table for a while making phonecalls. Dipak talking about mastering of the tracks and other technical matters. Richard keen to keep gigging but resistant to thinking laterally about the venues they are involved in. After t...

Back to Brighton More strange dreams: this time I was setting up an agency and firing the financial guy before we'd even started trading. A beautiful morning. Fond farewells to John and Sue, who had been excellent hosts, and had not minded my narcolepsy. Then aboard Bexy (Lorraine's car) and pootled up the nearby fish hill, before making off into the wild blue yonder. Took a longer route back through the rolling big-skied openness of the Cotswolds. Enjoyable drive stopping off for a plate of ratparts at a KFC in a service station, after deciding the Bank Holiday crush in the Cotswold towns was too much. I haven't had a KFC in something like 10 years. I have had a curious craving for them lately, which is soon cured by actually eating them. I'm good for another 10 years. Otherwise listening to CDs and Radio four and keeping calm when Lorraine explained that Stevie Wonder's Innervisions was an average record. Stopped off at the Tropical fish shop where I bought some l...