under another sun

Horrid nightmares last night. Up early and had a shower. Lorraine off early to go to the gym. I opened the front door into a deluge at 7:05 this morning. Ducked back in for my golfing umbrella and then walked down to Preston Park in diabolical horizontal rain, and a crack of thunder overhead as I was threading past tall trees holding my metal rod aloft. The gutters rushing like brisk mountain streams. I bought a cup of tea from The Daily Grind by the station, and the woman next to me said, 'this is like the end of days', which made me laugh. Everything in my rucksack soaked, luckily my laptop still worked. Even after reached Hampton, (slightly late due to train delays obvs.) my jeans weren't dry till about two o'clock in the afternoon. A pleasant enough day, although the client had moved all the goalposts, thus reducing the amount of work to be done.  Nice chat with Keith, and with Bouncy Max,  who was financial controlling for the day. She is in good form as ever. My...

Up early and working on the opera, deliveries happening during the day, including one that never knocked or rang merely stuffed the you were out slip through the door. I did some shopping, various chores and talked to Mum before she went off to see Mas. I also spoke to her this evening, and he has now had his pacemaker put in. I'm going up to see him and Mum tomorrow, as it is a chuffing non-strike day on the railways. Beth lurking about with Laura today, on a daytime sleepover, which seems to consist of making huge scooby snacks and watching obscure things on TV. Beth pleased that Laura had also bought her a murder book. Jade has asked her to be a bridesmaid too, and Sam and Jade's wedding now has been set for August. Off this afternoon to talk to Helen and hear the latest music she has written to my words on the Centaur project, and talked about everything from Post Modernism to the Diabolus in Musica . She also sat at the piano explaining some music theory to me about f...

Lorraine waking up with a strangely painful hip. She spent the day resting it when not doing some school work or going out to tea with a couple of chums. I weeded the garden, a bit of hoe work and a fair amount of ankle-level wrenching. A pleasant day for it though, and Clem next door passed over a bit of stumpish material to add to our stumpery. Weeds are robust sods. Otherwise, I took the opportunity to  quite a bit of Jazz, daddyo, and to read stuff. I also started a short story, which suddenly took off and started writing itself. John around this afternoon, and Beth cooked us all Sunday lunch, including an exemplary crumble of rhubarb and apple. All rather tasty. Janet very worried about Ken today, who may have to have possibly two operations. I said I would go to the hospital with her to visit him tomorrow.  Poor Janet has had a wretched and stressful week. And so to bed.

Lorraine and I starting Sunday slowly as usual. Breakfast, then Beth and Lorraine spent a happy hour or so going through Lorraine's clothes and having a cull. For me this was an opportunity to listen to Jazz downstairs, which isn't a majority favourite in Kenny Towers, and work on the Shakespeare poem. Then L and I drove off to go for a walk down by the seaside in Hove. Cool, but gorgeous sunny day, and loads of people walking along the path having had the same bright idea as us. Lorraine working at teatime, I cooked a roast supper, with L making a delicious white sauce to pour over the romaine cauliflower. L and I quickly quaffing a bottle of pink wine with our supper.

Easter Sunday with my Godchildren Up early to get on with things, but my glasses, now sadly necessary for reading and writing, had been left at Lorraine's house. Thwarted again. When the day was rebooted, Lorraine and I went out shopping for easter eggs, wine and CDs. I bought the Welcome to Mali by Amadou and Mariam having loved their last album, and Theolonious Monk's Greatest Hits which the Cat with the Hat had introduced me to. Lorraine bought Fleet Foxes, and Elvis Perkins, and Gomez - things which are not plinky-plonky . I have learned that quite a bit of my music falls into the plinky-plonky genre - it is a wide-ranging genre, which includes much jazz, prog, early blues, and classical music that uses atonality or too much dissonance. I am embarking on a new jazz phase, and was inspired by a BBC TV documentary 1959: The Year that Changed Jazz. Nineteen fifty nine was a major year in Jazz with the release of the immaculate Kind of Blue by Miles Davis, Take Five by Dav...