under another sun

Into Brighton this afternoon. Lorraine and I went into Churchill Square where we went to a wellness exhibition that Beth was involved in running. Lorraine and I went in there and attended a meditation. Rather a nice interlude to sit on a beanbag and unplug for a while. My brain took me to Moulin Huet where I was looking at worm casts.  Then Lorraine and I did some shopping, and then found ourselves drifting into The Basketmakers Arms for a beer. Then to Wahaca restaurant where we had a decent bite of Mexican food. Lorraine and a cocktail too and it all felt like a bit of a celebration.   Brighton at its best today. Thronging with liveliness thanks to the festival. Massed drummers in New Road, singers here and there and the feeling there was music and fun everywhere. As we walked down Gardiner Street a mob of people wearing headphones, streaming towards us, all breaking out to sing 'Everybody dance... Clap your hands clap your hands' the Chic song, which was great but slightly...

Feeling antsy. The weather a despicable mix of coolness and and rain with tantalising spots of sunshine. L and I sprang out of bed fairly rapidly for us, and after I bought some bread, we drove off to Bolney to Jo's house where there was an outside plant sale combined with a cups of tea and coffee and bits of cake to raise money for a charity Jo supports.  Lorraine knew one or two folks there. I felt uncharacteristically trepidatious about going to meet a group of people most of whom I did not know even vaguely. It was of course fine when I got there, and in fact nice to be eating a rather nice bite of carrot cake made with ginger and sipping a tea in the open air.  Home again, and we read and faffed about a bit. Lorraine wandering into My Time At Portia , her game. I read a somewhat underwhelming edition of the otherwise excellent  Under the Radar magazine, and saw a review of Robin's pamphlet in it.  Shortly before tea time, I went off to buy a packet of crisps, a...

So what with it being a Saturday I was hard at work from early in the morning till around two-ish intermittently chatting with colleagues. In the middle of the afternoon Lorraine and I walked down into town where my lovely wife bought me a pair of navy blue trousers, and we lurked about briefly before busing back home. Watched the FA Cup on TV this afternoon, a one sided game with Arsenal beating Aston Villa 4-0. Spent the rest of the evening fiddling around with this blog and generally enjoying a sprawl on the gold sofa, listening to Grieg's Peer Gynt as Lorraine did various bits to do with her quilt and copying photos from her iPad onto an ancient laptop. Betty out seeing a show this evening put on by some of her pals and returned to find us uncharacteristically watching a trashy show about Celebrity Meltdowns in 2014 that we had randomly and briefly stumbled on.

In my cups Up early to write for a few hours, and then the rest of the day, Dylan Thomas style, given to booze. Went to the Eddy with Lorraine and Cath to watch the glorious and noble Chelsea win the FA Cup. Slightly traumatic as Everton scored first in a record 25 seconds with a freakishly good goal. The pub clearly supporting "the Toffees" as Everton are known to their few admirers. I made no friends celebrating Chelsea's two glorious goals from Drogba and Lampard. Cath and Lorraine also enjoyed the game but were mysteriously able to intersperse the experience with conversations about sandals and such like. As Chelsea were being handed the trophy I phoned Anton, but he was unavailable for comment. Home to sleep and regroup, then up the hill for a barbecue in Anton and Anna's garden. Brian was there which was a nice surprise. As I arrived, however, I was quickly siphoned upstairs to read stories to the children, Oskar's was about a racing car called Roary, and a ...

Blue is the colour Awoke early at Andros and Sophie's place. Got up and had a long chat with Andros. I was interested to hear that he had once known Steve Howe quite well. Howe is the legendary Yes guitarist and one of my all time heroes. Andros had nothing but nice things to say about him - a very modest and likable man apparently. Off to the park for breakfast. Electra took me to watch her swing about on parallel bars, do handstands, and tell me about a debate about cats and dogs they had at school. She was on the side of the dogs, but took a dim view of a big Afghan when it appeared. Cristof and Electra are good kids. A nice breakfast in the open air, then Sophie and Electra came with me on the tube, and we played twenty questions, before I got off to catch the Victoria line, and headed home cheerfully A wonderful afternoon, watching the FA Cup final. Didier Drogba with a skillful one-two with Frank Lampard and a glorious goal, proved what centuries of philosophers could not: th...