under another sun

Lorraine's last day of term, which ended with a passion play, a success apparently. Off to Lewes, after a stonking early morning's writing. Met Robin and had a great chat with her in Cafe Nero about the future of Telltale, and just a general catch up. We also went around town dropping of posters for the Telltale reading in Lewes next month, and knocking on doors of people who put posters in their windows. Also bumped into Jeremy Page, editor of the Frogmore Papers, and Catherine Smith. Showing that Lewes is a place where you can't move for writers. Trained back to London Road, and paused for a veggie burger in the Open House and a read of Charles Olsen poems, before going home. A bit later  Dawn collected me, and we drove off to Worthing Cemetery where we met Lorraine and Helen, to attend Jan's funeral. A good ceremony, and her son Matt is a writer and delivered a lovely speech. Her daughter Laura was there too with her partner, as was Jan's elderly mother.  A m...

Sent off my Shakespeare poem this morning for Project 154, and it was acknowledged a few hours later. Quite pleased with it. It will be printed opposite sonnet XIX in the anthology. My poem is focused on the person Shakespeare wants to preserve in the verse. It finishes with 'Yet, do thy worst, old Time: despite thy wrong,/My love shall in my verse ever live young.' My poem is in the voice of the lover haunting the sonnet, saying he didn't want to be live forever locked in the poem and is called 'Locked in the Lines', and will be printed between the lines of the Sonnet XIX. Future Kenny scholars will observe that this is a typical Kenny move, the sort of thing that was behind This Concert Will Fall In Love With You . Having sent this off as Cactus the next door cat was taking his morning toilet in our bushes, I then had the best morning's writing of poems that I have had in a very long time. Rather chuffed by all this. Then off to the gym, where I had a slig...

Up early with a scratchy throat and reading a slightly alarming email from mum about Panamanian adventures. Toby feeling unwell on arrival and went to hospital and had a drip and given some pills, but has been discharged. Later I learned from a facebook post that they had also met Margaret Atwood in the airport. I meanwhile spent the first few hours of the day working on the Shakespeare poem for this . Then off to the gym for one of my trademarked mild mannered workouts and home again for a miso soup lunch. Then I bused to Hove where I spent a three hours with Helen. She looked very well after her cancer treatment last year, and it was great to catch up with her. She had new music to play me on our Centaur project. Really good stuff, a fully orchestrated first twenty minutes of the opening to the opera, she played me on Sibelius . I'm really sensing and organic core to it now. And then some gorgeous bits including an aria on the piano. Bus badness, meant I had to walk half the ...

Lots of chats with Lorraine this morning, who was feeling a bit frayed emotionally, not helped at all by hearing that her pal Jan, already coping with cancer, had a stroke this morning. In the afternoon Lorraine and I caught a bus into town where we met Beth. Lorraine off to do some shopping and Beth and I met up with Dylan and Kitty to read through the first draft of the play in the afternoon.  More about all that here . Beth and I very cheery afterwards, and I am happy that Kitty and Dylan not only seem totally up for it, but are also very likeable too which makes things more fun. Very excited to see that it's all taking off. Met Lorraine in a cafe and then we hopped on a bus, and ducked into the Preston Park Tavern for some food and a solitary sensible pint. Home early to lounge on the gold sofa and watch the guilty pleasure of BBC TV's The Voice. Ending the day on a cheerier note than the one we began on.

Up and finishing the addition of luscious lime to our kitchen walls. Then a frenzy of moving things about in my study, and decisively hanging lots of pictures up in the house. All this seemed to take up a good deal of the day, and broken by popping out for some pies at lunchtime. I spent the afternoon and evening working in my office. Lorraine had Jan, Helen and Dawn round for dinner, and I left the ladies to it after squeezing them all hello. It was the first of their regular get togethers since Helen's son died, and I think the evening did them all good, and there was lots of laughter too. Dawn popped up to talk about the day with gifted and talented kids we are doing next month, which will be fun, and will necessitate going down into the air raid shelters in the school. I also sorted out my Golden Weasel birthday present night with Klaudia in April. When the ladies left I watched this week's episode of Wolf Hall, which has been done really well.  Lorraine sniffing a bi...