under another sun

To Hampstead with Mum today. Finished Epitaph for a Spy by Eric Ambler. Outside my usual reading ambit, but fun nevertheless. A really easy journey for me, though Mum's train had to be taken out of service. I met her at Hampstead station and toddled all the way down Flask Walk, round the back of a school full of children in the playground demonstrating their healthy lungs. Into The Old White Bear which is one of our new haunts. In the Old White Bear a table full of posh theological students nearby, the most valuable wearing red trousers and a wide brimmed hat. Being God focused clearly not irreconcilable with being a dandified fop -- which I liked. Mum and I were talking about art, and I was reminding her of painting and artwork she did when she was younger and we were living in Neasden, for example a tall totem pole made out of vertebrae, a nail picture of the sun and moon and swirling stars. I remember her hammering many nails into an old door and spraying gold and silver onto i...

Up early and at my desk. This morning I finally finished the second draft of Gordon Road . Almost done now. The next draft will only be a matter of polishing punctuation, the poem's form and upgrading the occasional word. Allowed myself a measure of cheer about it.   Had breakfast with Lorraine we often do Wordle over our boiled eggs in the morning. Sometimes, when there's more time Lorraine also does Murdle which is a logic game when you work out who a murderer was. I've been struggling with Wordle this week. Yesterday the word was DATUM and I didn't get it. Lorraine did. She is better at Worldle than me I think.  Silwia comes for three hours on Friday morning to clean and she is very sweet. She talks to Brian a lot, and she and Lorraine hug when she comes in, and she curtseys sometimes which I don't think I've seen anyone else do in real life. She seems a little bit nervous of me, probably I am typing in my study Jack Nicholson in The Shining when she's he...