under another sun

Two years ago today, Lorraine and I got married. Clearly the best life decision I've ever taken. I never thought that being married would be so fantastic. Nor did I expect that being married would improve our relationship still further. Up early and off for La Barbarie's breakfast. A full Guernsey Breakfast for me, despite confirmation in the news that red meat, and processed meat such as sausages and bacon are bad for you.  I almost never eat red meat, and very little processed meat, so I took my life in my own hands. Very tasty as usual. Another unexpectedly beautiful day. We took ourselves off to town on the bus. I went to the joke shop, stuffed full of witches costumes, rubber spiders and ghost masks and asked if they had a Frankenstein's head. 'No, we don't have anything like that here,' said the woman behind the counter unhelpfully, with no attempt to cross sell me on, say, a zombie head. A spot of shopping here and there, some wine for tonight and s...

Spent the day writing TV scripts for trip to Chad, based around the hunger gap. I'd heard this phrase a lot without really understanding what it meant. It means that the amount of food people can harvest is not enough to see them through to the next harvest. Therefore there is a gap. In practice people eke out what they have, which amounts to a slow starvation. An odd business sitting in my office in Brighton trying to figure out ways of dramatizing this for a TV audience, and thinking about the shots that might be had out there. Apparently we are taking a drone, which is making me think about some amazing aerial shots. Reading St Matthew's gospel, putting myself into the headspace of our clients. And I started doing the duolingo French thing recently, as Toby and mum had both been doing it. Like how owls get disappointed with you if you don't do your daily lesson. I am quite enjoying it. I am a good deal worse at French than I had imagined. But it's good to start l...

Three Peakes and a harbour A great night's sleep, and fantastic not to be seeing the world through a veil of exhaustion. Detailed conversation about Leicester Tigers rugby club, by two guests who had adopted Lorraine yesterday. I found myself fresh out of cheerful sports banter department before I'd even had a cup of tea. Lorraine and I took a transcendentally beautiful walk under a perfect blue sky to Icart and around and down to Saints Harbour. I rarely find myself there, so took a several photographs. A slow walk back up the hill, listening to the water running down the valley and the birdsong, before returning to the hotel for a fast sandwich before catching the bus into town. This afternoon The Poetry Café, crammed full of poets -- Caroline Carver (who I rather like as a person) plus bus prize winners, and some locals I recognised. Some good interesting poetry going on, and I read a couple of poems too. Just over halfway through Lorraine and I realised we were about to be...

A glowing endorsement Edward Chaney sent me his introduction to A Guernsey Double . Towards the end he says, which has pleased Richard and I no end: "Not since the extraordinarily poetic Book of Ebenezer Le Page has a single volume made the soul of the island so unremittingly its focus". This is rather fab. Richard sent the quote back to me in a note simply because he wanted to type it out. Otherwise shattered and somewhat achy, making work arduous. Luckily the work for my lovely French client is for a website designed to encourage Brits to visit France to glug wine. Not the most challenging assignment.

Portly Prince To Specsavers to get my reading glasses bent back into shape, after I sat on about a year ago. Can't believe it has taken me so long. Put into a fury today by a person unknown, who parked their rucksack in my front garden crushing loads of plants. I hurled it venemously down the Twitten, and when I returned from Specsavers it was gone. To the costume shop again, where I met Beth who helped me, with the excellent Jessica, sort out some remarkable purple and black clothes for the concert. A 100 year old black silk top hat with purple filly band, black tails, purple waistcoat, some species of purple frilly cravat, pointed shoes, and a cummerbund. Suave, like a large portly version of Prince. Then Beth and I off to Sussex University for the final rehearsal with the Tacet Ensemble and the choir. All went fairly well, I think. Though I was not using a microphone, which I will do at the concert, so was always at the top of my voice, which meant I lost some of the colouring....

Dunkin' the doughnut Yippee. A really good session this morning, making big strides in getting my stuff together for my project with Richard. Also wrote to Edward Chaney who is (among other things) the literary executor of GB Edwards, and pushed on with the Anthology site. Received some photos of my late friend Tim Gallagher this morning. I'd been contacted by Mo, who was a friend of Tim's and had found my piece on the net about him. Broke off for a walk. Took myself down to the wild sea. Even at noon the sun was still quite low, and the waves were so big they cast shadows as they came in. Lovely to stand in the gale and blow the cobwebs away. Back home and pressed on with at last being able to add a bit more to the Anthology website. All making me feel less frustrated. Very tired this evening. Below the doughnut getting a dunking, and a couple of views from the pier.