under another sun

Another early start. Arrived at Farringdon at 8:30, pausing to buy a bacon sandwich from 'Tasty Cafe', which Toby would have liked, as tasty is my brother's highest accolade for food, modified in Japan for oishii , which means the same. A cheery Friday atmosphere pervading the office, full of colourful East End characters, who among their obvious talents at layout and design, swear vividly and often.  Two of them were talking about John Terry, the Chelsea football captain, who is in disgrace this week for racially abusing another professional during an ill-tempered game. One of them related a heartfelt story about how Terry phoned a dying fan, a friend of a friend, who had a young family. Terry spoke to him for two hours and was nothing but kind. The designer ended his story by saying 'of course, he's still a f*****g c**t though'. Fairly joyously released back into the wild, artfully dodging down Passing Alley towards the station. A couple of months of ...

Sleepy and unfocused as the lively weekend took its toll. I went to London today for a general mooch around and to meet Mario Petrucci, who is an old friend who has become a fairly famous poet. I waited some time for him at Baker Street station, where I was early and he very delayed by appalling trains. Reminded me of times I used to meet Mum there when we both worked in London as I lurked by the Sherlock Holmes statue. Waiting gave me the opportunity to do a spot of freelance tour guiding, being obliged to point people to the nearby Madame Tussuad's. Great to see Mario, who I had not seen in a couple of decades.  He had commuted down from Brunel University, where he has a residency. We repaired to a local cafe and spent two and a half hours chatting. I had re-read his  iTulips recently, and this really is a magnificent book; spare and modernist, but full of beautiful words and imagery and vibrant emotion. I told him how much I admired it. He t...

Pain free Migraine abated today, thank goodness. A beautiful mild afternoon, full of sunlight. Amazing how the absence of pain can make the world so wonderful. Went to my usual cafe and had an idea for another short story, which I set to, and began to write in the early part of the evening. Walked about in town and onto the pier until the single cloud in an otherwise clear sky got in the way of the sun for half an hour. Got up early and prepared a bean jar, and the house full with the aroma of herby beany goodness. Had bowls of this with Lorraine when she came by this evening, and a quiet drink. Poor thing was shattered after an arduous week. Much news coverage of John Terry the Chelsea captain who has been sacked as England football captain for having an affair with a girlfriend of a team mate while being married. English culture oscillates effortlessly between prim censure and crass vulgarity. I feel quite sorry for him. It was an easy mistake to make, I explained to Lorraine, who di...

Pork and pig Up with the sparrows this morning to start work at seven to finish off the emails and websites. Thankfully these were completed by noon. Spoke to First Matie afterwards, who seems to be doing far too many jobs. Afternoon spent fiddling with The Moth Display, and making a few calls and catching up on my emails. Sometimes working on a poem is like playing with a Rubik's cube, you get it to the point of having one square that's the wrong colour but then have to mess it all up again to get it right. Dispiriting to get so near and yet so far. May be writing again about impotence products. Yay! Expecting a brown envelope, stuffed with erection enhancer information for me to peruse and rewrite, any day now. Never a dull moment. Talking to mum on the phone and glancing out of the window saw a girl tearing off roses from my bush, and then legging it. My flowers attract all kinds of reactions. Sloped off to see Lorraine tonight, feeling a tad low in energy. But was revived w...

A slip of fate A good day, fairly low key. Started with some work on my skeleton story for a few hours, and then had a swim in the afternoon. This I followed by a spot of clothes shopping. I had been putting this off till I stop being so porcine. But this is proving a long wait, so I have bought some fat clothes thinking if you are fat you may as well be smart and fat. Evening entirely taken up with watching the Champions League Cup Final between Manchester Utd and Chelsea with Anton. Anton is a Utd fan and so one of us was destined to be gloomy. We got some takeaway Chinese food and sat on the sofa and watched an epic confrontation which went to a penalty shoot out. Unbelievably the excellent Chelsea captain John Terry only had to score his penalty and Chelsea would win. Due to the downpour in Moscow he slipped on the drenched pitch just as he took it, which caused him to miss the goal by a whisker. United went on to win by the narrowest possible margin. Thus a piece of wet mud can ma...