under another sun

Lorraine working from home, which was splendid. A good start on the book, then broke off to walk in the sunshine to buy a black tie from M&S for tomorrow's funeral. A sunny and cool spring day, the streets quite busy. Bussed back for speed and cooked a delicious miso and noodle soup for lunch. Heard from Mark Hill, who has jumped the next hurdle on his book, and shared some glowing feedback from the publisher. Inspiring. In the evening, L and I finished painting the main room downstairs, and it looks white and larger. We work as a good team. Painting the ceiling and got a good deal of paint on my face. To The Basketmakers for a late pint with Matt. He has a new and promising business wheeze for himself, and is gradually adjusting to his new life as a singleton. Discovered  Lorraine still up having watched some nordic noir crime drama. It makes me laugh that L can't cope with the political arguments on question time as it stresses her, but is quite happy to watch peopl...

Completely different day, great night's sleep and sprang out of bed feeling chipper. A really busy day at work, however, with the only break affording an opportunity to slope out and buy a salmon and cucumber sandwich. One person so stressed they had to be taken to hospital but thankfully was found to be fine later. Finished Mark Hill's MS on the train this morning. A very readable read: I think he's cracked it and am inspired by his example. Home to find Jane safely installed, having flown in from Guernsey this morning and regally explored Brighton during the day. Jane and Lorraine having had a glass of wine having tucked into Lorraine's special chicken grape and lettuce dish. Jane's over to see an Italian pal who is staying in Brighton. However a mix up over dates meant that Jane only got to see her for an hour late in the evening, which meant we had plenty of time to chat. When Jane did slope off she found herself being lionised by thirty Italians, who wanted...

Bleary morning. Dragging myself unwillingly to work. Left my flask of tea on the side so as the dire First Capital Connect trains have nothing onboard drank my first cup of tea at an unprecedented two and a half hours after getting up. A poor experience. Reading an MS by Mark Hill, a writer who I once worked with, who is living Portugal. Interesting book about him leaving London in the midst of a mid life crisis, with a broken heart and a drink problem, and his gradual recovery living in a small village in Portugal. A series of small things got my day off to a slightly askew start: being shouted at not to use a lift I was walking into because it was for a paramedic in the office reception; an email from the people who are managing my property saying that someone had crowbarred the door knocker from my door in the Twitten and what was I going to do about it. And an irritating discussion with unhelpful colleagues: a collection of small Pooterish peeves.  In a lull, I happened...

Met Maureen and Pat for lunch in The Signalman today, the quilt that Lorraine has been making for Beth over the last 18 months returned after Maureen had done some splendid work on it. Beth will have a quilt that her mother and grandmother both worked on; a treasure. The Signalman, noisy with a tables blokes wetting their whistles before heading off to the Brighton game (which they were destined to win 4-0 against Huddersfield). We all had rather good fish and chips with mushy peas and thick slices of brown bread. Hearty fare, and the chips especially good. Conversation with the barman who found out what type of potato the chef specifies, a particular kind of maris piper was the answer. Home in the afternoon, for some sofa time, while with Lorraine's help was able to get through to Orange to find out what to do about some cyber bastards called called Jamster who were steadily charging me £1.50 for each unwanted text they sent me. The solution is to text 'stop all' to the ...

Untaxing Up to London for another day on neuropathic pain. Refreshingly, the new creative director reframes things interestingly, and stretches the creative work. Sean and I have been asked to work Thursday too, and then have a long weekend off before a few days next week. After work I met Mark Hill and Robbie in the Blue Anchor for a few swifties . The place redesigned from when I used to go there. But done quite tastefully. Heard about Mark's tour of Europe, which he is hoping to get a book out of, and discussed ways to get agents. Robbie on good form too, telling us about his new Swedish girlfriend. Made off fairly quickly, and bumped randomly into Paul on a platform at Victoria, returning from visiting his son. Home to my accounts sent by my glamorous accountant, and a calculation of the tax I need to pay. Luckily, it turns out I have saved quite a bit more that I owe. This means my financial cushion is suddenly a lot plumper that I'd thought. Went to bed feeling lucky...

Mark's off A note this morning from Mark Hill who is off on a jaunt across Europe. He has started a project called " The Grey-haired Gap Year , In which your correspondent sets out in his mid-forties to do the backpacking trip he never quite managed in his twenties." Anyhoo Canadian Mark is off to explore the dark continent of Europe and hopefully get a book out of it too. I will link to his site from my blog. My day was fine, sorting out a few prosaic tasks and then getting down to Skelton Yawngrave again. Not quite recovered from mystery wussiness of the weekend but definitely improving. Brain still sluggish. Ate a surfeit of fish fingers as I had to defrost the fridge. Watched the first episode of the third series of The Wire . Never seen this show before, and I can see what all the fuss has been about. It is brilliantly done. I always seem to pick up on TV shows late. If this is what Baltimore is like, makes me feel even more retrospectively grateful for the angelic N...