under another sun

Another stress peak : L and I discussing the wedding this morning wondered if we had paid the balance to the pavilion for the ceremony. We discovered we hadn't and the deadline for such matters had passed. Nobody on the phone, so we went down to the Pavilion itself. Very nice people there one of whom looked on their computer system for us, only to find that there were other people booked in our slot. Lorraine looking as if she was going to cry at people quite a lot. I began mentally composing the email to explain there was a change of plan, and we would actually be getting married in a car park somewhere on a different day. However, after twenty minutes or so it turned this was a system glitch and everything should be fine and be confirmed on Monday morning. Went to the Cricketers for a sit down, and a soft drink to gather ourselves and then off to the jewellers to collect our rings. Mine was a little tight still but loosening it was a matter of seconds. Lorraine's wedding ...

July and the drought continues. Today the rain relented only for an hour or so, and Toby and Romy set off among the bedraggled denizens of Brighton. I joined them later at the Marwood for a cup of coffee, and then, taking advantage of a slight brightening of the clouds we scurried onto Brighton Pier where it began to rain again. Romy said that it reminded her of places in Japan. Then off to The Giggling Squid for a pleasant lunch.  It has been wonderful to spend a couple of days talking to Toby and Romy. Then rain dodging through the lush Pavilion Gardens to the Brighton Museum. Am really beginning to warm to its eclectic collection, we spent some time happily drifting in there. On the way home, Toby suggested we go into St Bartholomew's Church , which I'd never been to before, despite its huge and austere brick presence in the New England quarter. It has an extraordinarily lofty interior, making you feel ant-like (in a pleasant, spiritually-uplifting way) as you walk in. ...

Spent a lovely day with Toby and Romy, drifting about in Brighton in the persistent July rain, kept thinking of  "Sitting in an English Garden waiting for the sun/ If the sun don't come, you get a tan/From standing in the English rain." as the Beatles sang. We popped into The Marwood Cafe for coffee. Had a good talk in there, among all the eclectic art and weird stuff. A little later into The Mock Turtle for a snack, where I had one of their bespoke Welsh Rarebits. Weather really quite astonishing, more like November than July, and the clad for summer Romy and Toby recoiling somewhat, hair whipping about their faces, as we got to the seaside in the howling rain-filled gale. However great to hang out and shoot the breeze while nosing happily in shops. We popped into the Blue Dog gallery, and saw some of Mum's work and have a chat with the woman working there, talking about business generally, which is quiet. Nobody wants to put their hands in their pockets.  De...

Thank God off the steroids today although brain is still mushy. I seem to have lots of good ideas but can't get any of them down. Off at lunchtime to meet Anton for a coffee in the Marwood Cafe. Able to sit outside in a little courtyard garden for a while too as it wasn't raining. He had been reading some of the latest draft of The New Idea and had some good suggestions and a few thoughts on the story so far. Excellent to get some feedback, and good to have coffee with Anton, still gloating over his iPad and announcing that he is going paperless. Bought the audiobook of the Steve Jobs biography by Walter Isaacson to keep abreast of the Zeitgeist. Lots of people are very impressed by Jobs.  Have listened to a few hours of it. On this account I think I would have found him obnoxious, although clearly an incredibly successful businessman. Interesting to follow a thread through California and the IT and business story that I was dimly aware of working for IBM in the 90s in Londo...

Cat in the doghouse Basil the fat cat in the doghouse this morning as it had pooped indoors for the last two nights. Basil won't or can't use the catflap and we have been poking her outside at regular intervals but this method seems not to be working. Lorraine not pleased to be coming downstairs to such a catastrophe. Nice to be sitting up on the mezzanine level with Lorraine, who was working from home this morning, as I laid out the programme, and other bits. Looking forwards to doing the concert and being able to fix some of the niggling things... like getting some more copywriting work so that Lorraine and I can have a holiday. In the afternoon I walked into town and spent a couple of happy hours tinkering with old poems in Marwood cafe. The work I did was stale but it is good to knock on the door again. I can work among hubbub or in silence or with ambient drifting music. Anything in between doesn't work. Lorraine home early and we went to Sainsbury's, where I tease...

Poet and Piano Off this morning to Glen's house where Fingers and I got down to business right away rehearsing the new pieces which we are going to play on Saturday. These are Ophelia and Kafka, the second and third parts of "Three Portraits for Poet and Piano". Both short pieces utterly excellent, and Glen and I found our way through them quickly. Met Dipak for coffee this afternoon in the Marwood. Chatting among the eclectic and haphazard decorations and paintings. Often a young clientele so there is a fair degree of sitting about in a cool way which I enjoy observing. Then bits of admin, laying out the programme and all the other stuff that needs to be done. I can't help worrying about snow. I cooked using a Madhur Jaffrey recipe tonight and it turned out rather nice. Very simple. Lorraine and I scoffed it, then played cards and listened to an album by Lamb rather than stare blankly at the goggle box. Went to bed reading R.S. Thomas. What an amazing poet he was. I...

Skateboard terrain The R4 Today programme talking about the drought we can expect next year due to low autumn rainfall. As usual this sort of talk cue for the skies to empty themselves of huge amounts of rain all day and night. I became a Landlord today, so phone calls this morning to utilities. Once this landownder business done, off to collect the master CD of Pollard & Kenny's Clameur from Simon. Paused en route to buy a pie from Bangers Home Made Pies, a shop I happened on whose only business seemed to the manufacture of rather nice pies. I scored a small chicken and mushroom pie and was well pleased. A bit early for Simon, I tarried in the Levels park, taking snaps of the rainsoaked and strangely melancholy skateboard park, made more so by a small tree that had been turned into a shrine for a young woman. Once the CD obtained from Simon I mooched back into the city centre talking to Matt about the CD. Then off to get my hair cut in the Laines by a bald barber who did a g...

A walk on the mild side Writhing and itching through the night, due to MSG. However once up began to get things done. Wrote to Simon Scardanelli after agreeing with Matt that the latest mix of the album was the one. Wasted half an hour waiting to talk to someone from the EDF power company. Out at lunchtime to go to the bank and I dropped in to Brighton Museum and Art Gallery to see an exhibition of Ragamalas , Indian miniatures inspired by music. Simply exquisite. Met Dipak this afternoon at Marwood's cafe, where they do - excuse me - a damn fine cup of coffee. We were discussing our CDs and hooking up with the Shakespeare Trio for a performance in February. We ended up going on a long walk, around the pier and then along the coast to the Marina where we stopped for another coffee and a beer and talked for some time in the Weatherspoons pub there, which has big windows overlooking the marina. As Dipak and I talked a murmuration of starlings gathered swooping in the air, as dusk arr...