under another sun

Got up earlyish this morning, to work on some writing, or at least think about writing -- and did some editing during the day on the podcast. More wild wind and rain. Later L and I scuttled into town and popped into Seaford's branch of supersavers to replace the pair I lost in Greece. Served by a young automaton. Also Lorraine and I took pair of duvets into the dry cleaner. Lorraine charming the man behind there with talk about maths, and how he couldn't be so bad at it because he has his own business. The smell of bean-based goodness permeating the house. Not without incident, as the haricot and butter beans I had soaked overnight and boiled were too old.  I replaced them with tinned beans of the same persuasion, and it worked a treat. Posted the pictures on Facebook. Jenny Kendall Tobias calling me out for off piste ingredients such as garlic, a touch of celery, a bit of cumin and turmeric.  More progress on the house today. Including drilling holes in walls again, which wen...

A night of weirdly terrible dreams. In the morning listened to Jane chatting on JKT's BBC Guernsey show reading poems and being interviewed about being a poet and a Camila lookalike. Some lovely stuff, and as a lover of puns, I particularly enjoyed her puntastic poem about a vegetarian Christmas. Hear Jane here, at 2 hours 52 minutes. Beginning to feel distinctly Christmassy now. The humongous food shop today in Sainsbury's, which luckily enough was remarkably uncrowded. This all went well, apart from the bit where I found myself struggling with a large Scottish salmon, which began to slip out of its long bag at me as I was handling it at the till. Drove home and unpacked the sacks of provender, the house now groaning with foods of all kinds and an embarrassment of boozes.  Off in the afternoon to drop in on Janet and Ken, to swap presents and invite them around to strap on a Christmas Day nosebag with us. Ken looking very well, and we had cups of dragonfly tea and bis...

Up early and galloping through my French stuff, and sent it off to Paris and had a quick chat with mes amis there and did some more. I like working this way, and my colleagues always seem so pleased with things I send them. A quick walk into town at lunchtime and then back to work. Happy just to be spending the evening in Lorraine and Beth watched watched The Great British Bake Off. Listened to the JKT show on Radio Guernsey just before bedtime, and heard Richard reading a poem about La Gran'mère  for national poetry day. It was a fine poem. With my poems on the same subject, she is fast becoming the most written about menhir I know. Good to hear JKT, Richard and Jane again on the airwaves. Calliope in a moment of protest today, as I worked.

Up early and working on poems, after a terrible night's sleep. Then a spree of cat capturing, Brian legging it off to the garden when he saw the cat carrier, both holding onto the sides with their claws. Lorraine and I took Calliope and Brian in for their yearly check up.  Calliope yowling appallingly in the car, but luckily no spraying this year.  The cats were found in good health apparently said the nice vet at Top Cats, who also removed a tick from Brian. Heard this morning about the death of Ronnie Corbett, the comedian. He is the grandfather of Dylan who is in our play, so obviously it made the news much closer to home. I said hello to Ronnie Corbett a few years ago, and he seemed (from the way he was with people) as nice as he appeared on TV. Home again, I finished off some work then listened to Richard on the JKT show on BBC radio Guernsey. Richard absolutely excellent on it, and he read The Exile , a poem inspired by a Brighton-based exile of his acquaintance, whi...

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...

London calling To London early this morning. Started to listen to a Terry Pratchett book Anton made me buy, but struggled. Instead I began The End of the Affair by Graham Greene, which was rather splendid, and listened to the rough tracks of Clameur on my iPod. A lovely sunny morning as the fields slipped by and London sprawled out to meet us. Stopped to snap the statue of Newton (after Blake) outside the British Library as I walked from the station to Tavistock Square. A pleasant day. Lots of familiar faces there. Including Barney, with whom I had recently had a pint in Lewes, and Slug a former partner of mine who I'd not seen for years. Our relationship ended under poor circumstances, but the world has turned since then, and it was actually really nice to talk to him. Spent much of the afternoon with Keith working on a brief about teeth, which was in fact like pulling hen's teeth. Having a laugh as is usual when we work together. Other brief chats with The FB, Matty boy, P...

Kick off Up early and a light breakfast before jumping on the bus to go into town. From there walked north along the shining Belle Greve Bay till I reached the BBC buildings. Riccardo outside and we marched in shoulder to shoulder. A lovely chat with Jenny as usual and we had a good 25 minutes on the JKT show with her. She is a lovely broadcaster, and we got in a great plug for Defenders of Guernsey too. Jenny has been consistently fabulous to Richard and myself. It's great to be with Richard too, we are developing into something of double act. Into town then, and Richard and I sloped off to the hub, which was on Market Terrace, and looked great. Lots of people to chat to, and I met Gabi who edits Island Ink, for the first time. Lorraine arrived as I was mid networking fury. She and I snuck away to Dixneuf for French bistro where I consumed the French speciality fish and chips. Kick off for Richard and I, reading from A Guernsey Double in the hub. A well attended reading, and we ...

Nit picking Up early and straight to work on the story. Spent much of the day combing the text for nits and clumsiness. Another month on it would haven been nice, but the planets may never align for me in the same way again. There will never be a better time to launch a short children's story than at the Guernsey Literary Festival next week. And as my new philosophy means I take every opportunity that presents itself, I must go for it. I've looked at it so much in the last days that I can no longer see the textual wood for the trees. However: an amazing stroke of luck. Catherine Pope, who republishes Victorian novels, has offered to proof Defenders of Guernsey for me after I sent out a Facebook SOS. Walked across town to one digital printers and got the ball rolling with them. Also spoke to folks in Guernsey about my technical requirements for the Children's sessions. Meanwhile Richard, who is poleaxed by an evil back, has set up a BBC Guernsey appearance for us on JKT...