under another sun

Recording with Robin, first thing, then after a certain amount of faffing trying and failing to find a workaround for the time lag in my channel when we are recording, which is ruining the quality of what we do. Then a fish pie lunch, and up off to Mum's, arriving at little after six.  The trains pleasantly undisrupted, which made the journey almost pleasant. I enjoyed listening to Will's audiobook, read by him, called The Cut That Wouldn't Heal , which Callum said was his favourite of Will's books. It is a kind of memoir about his father's death. A strange experience hearing him reading it, having just seen him having experienced a bad stroke, and to listen to him describing his mother, days after meeting her myself. Shortly after it really started reminding me of of Knausgaard and then he began to talk about Knaussgaard. Will reads it very well. There is a lot of craft in it, making it fascinating to follow.  Picked up some tortilla chips, hummus, and coleslaw at ...

Started listening to  The Power and The Glory  today by Graham Greene as an audiobook. But it's not really ticking the Knausgaard box. Into work, with actual work to do today, and briefings on other stuff for next work. Felt quite relieved as I negotiated my end date at the current agency. I've only two weeks after this one before I am released back into the wild. Sniffing the ozone of freedom today, I can't wait. Otherwise a 'Britain's facing drought disaster' screamer on the front page of The Express this morning. As Thursday is the new Friday, we fancied going out for a bite tonight, so Lorraine and I popped over to the Preston Park Tavern, from where we could comfortably watch the heavy rain.

Thank Goodness the French didn't vote for the fascist Le Pen in the presidential elections, choosing a weird wunderkind banker instead. A poor night's sleep, and slightly wussy with an upset stomach first thing. Then going to work clinging onto the idea that (after today) I only have two more Mondays to do at this agency for the time being. Little for Keith and I to do, other than very small bits. Feeling edgy today.  I was briefed on something towards the end of the day, that was of course needed urgently. A walk at lunchtime in Russell Square. Spoke to Mas, Mum out and then later off to The Royal Free. Meanwhile a new bathroom is being put in. When I eventually caught up with her this evening, she said it seems she will need an operation on her pancreas, as they have found pre-cancerous cells. She is philosophical about it, and I suppose it is good that they have caught this early. Still it means more hospital, which is not ideal for her or Mas. She will learn more tomorr...

Another dreadful night. Sometime after 4 at the end of my tether and being skewered with what is the worst back pain I've ever experienced, I swore and punched the bed. Unfortunately this frightened Lorraine awake and I felt like the worst kind of serial killer. Again due to the pain I ended up only being able to sleep on the sofa, wedging myself into a weird position around 5am. Lorraine late up because her mobile phone ran out of juice between the alarm ring and the snooze ring. I sprang from the sofa before 8 as a man called Luke from Rentokil arrived. I had to herd the cats into a safe room then leave the house repairing to the cafe around the corner to work on my laptop. Except my specs were in the now biohazard house. Nothing for it but to eat a diet busting large breakfast, while listening to three men competitively bragging about their holidays and the heroic  scuba dives, fishing trips etc. they'd all done on them. Luckily got a Doctor's appointment and given s...

Woke up early today, and got up to do a spot of writing for an hour or so before simply going back to bed. Eventually Lorraine and I got up again and attempted to be relentlessly organised and prepared. Not helped by BT Internet, whose widespread malfunction activated unasked for parental controls randomly barring access to sites like the wine society and even a florist - a bizarre problem which apparently affected lots of their customers. To Brighton this evening, we were going to go by train but Lorraine decided to drive. First to Hove to pay, with some difficulty the money that Lorraine owed Sainsbury's petrol station having filled up her tank last week only to discover that her purse was at home. Took them ages to work out how to take the money -- a process which involved phoning people and looking at stuff in blue clip folders. Then a minor accident. Parking in Brighton, close to where we used to live, the tyre caught the unusually high kerb and burst. Alarmed people came ...

Counting down the days now till I return to Brighton. As Lorraine says, one thing about this little sojourn in Hayward's Heath is to remind us of how much we like living in Brighton. I will miss one of our Haywards Heath neighbours, Gary, who has Down's Syndrome. Most days he straps on his headphones, sparks up his Karaoke machine to sing with unrestrained gusto and volume in the room next to the one I've been working in. I find this immensely cheering, and makes me feel that all's right with the world. It's hard to work out most of the tunes, but his version of Kylie's Can't get you out of my head will live with me for some time. We also hear him at the weekend when we are lazing in bed. When we met him the other week, at the drinks after Jo's wedding, he absolutely loved Jo and followed her around hugging her. Finally got some post today. The new owners of The Old Church Hall sent through an enormous envelope full of stuff, bless 'em. And at las...

Off with Betty and Lorraine to Ashford today to see Maureen and Pat, as we have things there we needed to collect, but once we were there I decided that one of the items, a fridge, shouldn't be transported on its side in the back of the car. Maureen cooked a particularly nice Sunday lunch which we ate with much enjoyment, despite Lorraine being told off for not putting the vegetables on the plates with enough neatness. Pete was also there, popping in and out and playing tank warfare games upstairs. Luckily he has agreed to drive the stuff we have stored in their garage to our new home, when we get there. Lorraine also advanced the theory that having a footlong beard, Pete's pride and joy, didn't show off his handsome face enough and rolled it up to demonstrate as only an aunt can. After lunch Beth read out the long list of Christmas treats and foods that we had constructed last night to last us over the Christmas period, which we had done last night instead of broodin...