under another sun

Hosing it down this morning. A filthy day. Many of the trains weren't running thanks to industrial action, including those I take to get to Mum, so I called her first thing and rearranged a visit to next Wednesday.  A suprise visit from Matt, who had come to Seaford to see his grandfather, and get his wee boy William to meet him. Lorraine cooks us some soup. William was delightful, and extremely well behaved. Great to see Matty boy again, last glimpsed on Chiswick High Road in the summer. Good to have a catch up on some gossip, but also to see Matt being such an exemplary dad. All heartwarming.  Then later in the afternoon, Lorraine and I set off to Brighton by car, to catch the train to Victoria. Arrived in good time, bought a snack from M&S and caught the tube to Embankment and walked up through the festive throngs to the London Coliseum  St Martin's Lane, where we saw Max Richter lead the performance of his piece Voices, based on the Universal Declaration of Human ...

To Seaford station, looking at the sea, before zooming up to Victoria via Lewes. At Victoria a voice on the tannoy asking for someone with medical training to urgently go to the gate we were all crowding through.  Welcome to London. Tube to Embankment, and The Salisbury to meet Bob and Carl.  Excellent to see them both. Weird how quickly being together feels entirely normal. After some discussion we decided to go to the After Impressionism exhibition round the corner in the National. A decent exhibition, with some paintings that were new to me. I enjoyed seeing After the Sermon by Gaugin again, one of my favourite paintings. We enjoyably mooched around there, Carl in signature style not wasting time on work he didn't like much, Bob refraining from waving his fingertip three or four millimetres above the surface of the paintings so all well.  Then we tubed to Hammersmith and lurked along the river talking about old times and catching up some of the news while dropping in ...

A fun day... Chats with Keith first thing, then all of us off in the car to Canterbury. I have never been to the centre of Canterbury before. I liked it lots, and as Pat and Maureen melted slowly away to do some shopping, Lorraine and I went to visit the Cathedral. A lovely place, and photogenic. I took my camera out, but the most interesting shots were to be had down in the Crypt, but here photos were not allowed. We mooched about there, looking at the tomb of the Black Prince, and where Thomas Becket was given a good stabbing in 1170, and so on. Also mooching about in the grounds, where privileged school children from the private school walked. Back out of the grounds. Passed a statue of Chaucer, and saw a ducking stool and had a light lunch and a cup of tea before catching up with Pat and Maureen again and driving home. At tea time Lorraine drove us into the country a little to visit Matt and Isy and their three excellent bairns. We arrived before it was dark, and Matt showed us aro...

A freelance day for me, starting early with reading loads of briefing materials, and then a zoom call with Matty boy, and Slug and others at nine. Matty has an austere buzzcut. My own barnet now taking on a misbegotten life of its own. Met Ozzie and art director, who instantly had to leave for a hospital appointment which became delayed so I spent the bulk of the day working on my own, which was fine. I then took myself for a long walk after work, but it was very windy and blustery up on the Hillfort.  I stopped at Quaff at Fiveways which has a bench in front of the door, and bought some Harveys beer. Chatting to the man behind me in the queue about the prospects of drinking in a pub beer garden soon. Lorraine, meanwhile, was into school, now responding to her leadership calls on how the school should open. So far so good, although some of the parents are troubled. The fact is in the absolute absence of coherent leadership from National or local level, it has fallen to headteac...

Craig's funeral today. Strange surreal business of logging onto a webpage to see the service, and spot lots of friends there. Lovely service, without religion, really reflecting who he was and incorporating lots of people's reflections -- some of the music he liked and poems read by Matt and Sylvia. I felt bad I wasn't there, as there were many there I knew. Matt, The French Bloke, and Robbie among those carrying the coffin casket. Shed a tear in my room for Craig and especially for Mel, and wishing everything was different. Matt read The Road Not Taken by Frost, which was a poem Craig liked lots -- and I found it unbelievably poignant in the circumstances. The Government at last announced that pubs and restaurants should be closed today. I went on a long walk this afternoon, and passed three pubs, before the announcement, and all of them had a handful of people in them, almost all of them middle aged men taking what might prove to be their last few beers in a pub for so...

Very saddened to hear that Craig died this morning. Many heartbroken responses on WhatsApp, and Facebook. Although I'd not seen too much of him lately, we had swapped messages a few weeks ago as I had invited him to my party. Shortly before he told me he had been diagnosed with tumours. He spent the next few weeks in hospital and died peacefully and in no pain. His wife Mel and his very close pals are devastated. My favourite memory of him was when he came to Guernsey on my 50th as a surprise package with Matty boy and Katie, Lorraine having secretly liaised with them. Craig's open-hearted, open-minded delight in the island I love was typical of him. I loved his gravelly Minnesota voice too, and he was a natural storyteller. A lovely human. This all put me off my stride a bit, and I did not feel like writing today. Instead, as Lorraine had taken the afternoon off to go with Maureen to the doctor about her knees and hips and walking. So I hopped aboard too, and we drove across...

A foul morning in which Matty boy had run half a marathon in Brighton. Lorraine and I went to meet him at the top of Muesli Mountain for a lunchtime beer. Beth drove us there and collected us, which was great. Lovely to see Matt and chat with him. He looked fresh as a daisy after running through gales and rain, we chatted about Craig obviously, and about seeing First Matie last week, and meeting Ian. As ever Matt had assembled several friends, including Lara his sister in law, who we had met in the Summer and Lorraine had a long coffee with as she is a newly-qualified teacher. I also chatted with Steward and Jonathan at the bar, two likeable chaps. The pub was around the corner from one Lorraine and I had gone to a year and a half ago to see Glen and Eleni, where there was a man throwing glasses at the bar, which as I was standing nearby I intervened in. Apparently Stewart knew the perpetrator, who remains barred. Home and played cards later on with Beth and Lorraine, and ate roast...

Off to London today, after doing a few bits at home. Nostalgically mooched around some old haunts, and did a bit of shopping before meeting Matty boy and the folks from his agency in a pub called The Footman in Charles Street Mayfair. The man who manages it used to run The City Barge on Strand on the Green, which is where Matt knows him from. Half a dozen police cars outside it when I arrived, but it was nothing to do with the pub, which was full of lairy loadsamoney Tories. One of whom fresh from the party room we had been in was ironically wearing a Jeremey Corbyn teeshirt and Labour rosette, in crowing style. Hard to love, and Lucy fell into an animated conversation with him. Lots of nice folks arrived for our party, which was up in a private room which we went to a bit later on. Nice to see old pals like Slug, Karam, Steve Buckley, Dave the art director, as well as newer chums Lucy Silver, who is also a talented young poet, and Helen who I worked with from time to time who had th...

Lorraine and I went into town this morning. Lorraine went to give the folks at C&H fabrics a box of biscuits for the staff as a thank you for helping reunite Pat and Maureen when they lost each other at the shops. Very kind they had been. I went straight to the station, which was full of purgatorial crowds emptying out of the trains and swarming in the lemming-like to the seaside. I met up with Matty boy, Isy and their exemplary little bairns Elsa (5) and Harry (3), who are currently angelic children. Great to see them, and Isy who I have not seen for ages. We stopped into the garden of the Battle of Trafalgar, where Lorraine soon joined us. There we had some food and some drinks in the garden, as it was a gorgeously sunny day.  Then we all moseyed down backstreets to the busy seafront, but close to the remnants of the old pier. There we had ice cream and sat on the stones as the children took turns in standing down by the sea, and it was all really nice. Meanwhile John and...

First of the month, and after writing for a couple of hours, I caught the train up into London to meet Mum in the Salisbury. We shared plate of nachos, and chatted happily over a couple of drinks. I was telling her how much the diversity in my musical taste was down to her exposing me to things like Stravinsky and Miles Davis when I was a nipper. Not to mention all the trips to museums and art galleries. That kind of stuff makes a big difference I think, and we were lucky to live in London and be close to so many cultural riches. Mum reminded me that she was 79, and she really is remarkable taking a break from Mas and zooming into town on the tube to meet me. I made off then to Hammersmith, to meet Matty boy for a long overdue catch up. As I was early I took a nostalgic stroll past the riverside offices I worked at from 2000-2007 plus a few bits of freelance afterwards. The area all around it, which once was a huge piece of fenced off wasteland is now full of upmarket apartment block...

Slept like a log, and as the new day dawned my guts were tranquil. I had a toast based breakfast, and Lorraine dropped me off at Preston Park and I trained up to Chiswick, to see my pals there.  Had an idea for a new ghost story on the train, and started it quickly on my laptop. Happy to be back to see my pals in Chiswick, as I'd not been there for two years. Good to see Matty and other pals there. And weird as ever, to leave their office, and find myself looking down at the flat I used to live in in my last year in Chiswick. Only half day briefing this morning. The excellent brief, from a woman called Fi, appallingly, involved looking at the Bristol Stool Scale , and discussion of poo colours from a medical point of view. Something that brought the realities of yesterday to mind rather too vividly. Liked Fi, and it turns out she is a writer too, and we chatted lots in the Roebuck at lunchtime. Most of the team there, and great to catch up with Matty and also Lucy the poet...

Woke up worried that Lorraine wanted to move to London, as she had been insisting on it in my dream, although she denied it in real life. Otherwise a sense that things were moving forwards a bit again. Spoke to Fi at the Chiswick agency, and arranged to go up to London on Friday morning and the extent of the job. It only seems a two-dayer, but that is nevertheless welcome indeed and I will get to chat with Matty Boy and Slug too. Also I signed off my accounts. I had a reply from the accountant from 1AM, with news of what my tax bill will be this year. Thankfully not as steep as I had feared it might be.  In thanking him, I advised an early night. Otherwise I went virtuously to the gym, and worked hard on completing my horror story, The Inheritor. It is shaping up really well I think, and I have a very neat ending to it now. Lorraine working late tonight, it being a governors meeting, so I snuck off and got myself fish and chips, which I enjoyed a good deal, and watched Larry San...

Off to Hampton this morning. A bit of train kerfuffle, trains cancelled and went on autopilot Victoria instead of Clapham, but all was well in the end. Basically spent the day with several of my old muckers. Went to the French Bloke, Perky and Pat's agency in Hampton by the river. Keith was there too, and I shared a desk with him. Briefed on the job by the FB sitting on a bench in the cold looking at the river. Michel interrupting himself by saying Oh look, a grebe!   Walked off to buy a pie with Pat and Keith at lunchtime from a shop in Hampton village. A saunter back. In the afternoon the FB strapped his headphones on and began squeaking his motorbike leather clad leg as he began to listen to some unknown tune. I mentioned to the others that it sounded like a teenager's bedroom, and a few of us snickered somewhat as the FB manfully squeaked on. Everyone left he agency quite early, and Keith gave me a lift to Kew in a nice little MG sports car, we  were laughing like dr...

I have set my face against camping ever since an unspeakable family camping holiday in Devon in 1976. Our tent was very pleasant, for a tent. After we lurched into bed we found the airbed was slightly on a slope, and after a few hours of sliding off the airbed onto our heads Lorraine had the brainwave that it might be a better idea to have our pillows at the other end. This, plus the effects of a good deal of alcohol, a cold night and all the sliding meant I barely slept at all. We did have a strangely romantic walk to the toilets through the dew sodden grass in the early morning light with the landscape looking beautiful at six in the morning. Despite a distinct absence of bounce (which turned out to be a widespread phenomenon among co-revellers) Lorraine and I enjoyed the day very much. Down to the barn again, where restorative buns full of bacon sausages and eggs, and mugs of tea and a good deal of talking. A lull in the middle of the day, Lorraine slept and I had a lovely chat wi...

So up at the De Trafford hotel and eating a Chef and Brewer breakfast downstairs before packing and getting ourselves sorted for the big wedding to be held at a farm near the village of Wincle, south of Macclesfield and in the edge of the peak district national park. All rather idyllic and a gorgeous drive there too. As we were early as we turned off the main road, near the farm, we squinted into the Royal Oak only to see Nicola and First Matie climbing out of a car. We parked up and had a cheery reunion over coffee and then a beer, and were joined by Lucy and Sean, other pals of Matt's. Then we then drove into what was described as the middle of nowhere and kept going through some achingly beautiful countryside and arrived at Barleyford Farm. Family friends of Matt and Isy who were getting married. The French Bloke and Craig pointing the way, both fairly refreshed already, to the barn field where we parked up and found our tent in a village of tents. Quickly changed in there, an...

Monday, and raining. Off to the gym this morning, to do something about my festive plumpness. Then home before going off to London. Trains are utterly diabolical at the moment, Preston Park ominously deserted, with signs about disruption and strikes (all blamed on the union and not mentioning the world's most incompetent railway company, and the world's most incompetent secretary of state for transport Chris Grayling of course). Travel hard to impossible on any day this week apart from today and Thursday -- when I will go up to see Mum and Mas again. Spoke to Mum and it sounds as if they are going to give Mas a pacemaker because he is not recovering and is still in intensive care. Apparently he is the person who holds their record for being in intensive care after a triple bypass. Otherwise by judicious choices, I managed to get to Chiswick with only three trains. Walked to the City barge along Strand on the Green, passing Isis Court where I once lived, and felt pleasantl...

Made a layer pie today, one of my mum's old recipes, where you layer onion and pork luncheon meat in a pie, then pour in beaten eggs. You bake it, and when sliced it appears in attractive strata of pork and oniony egg. It is not a thing of great sophistication, but very comforting on a cold day with baked beans and baked potato.  Fed this to an appreciative Lorraine this evening. I like to be able to cook for her in the evening. She brings me tea and breakfast in the morning quite often. It is a beautiful thing a cup of tea in the morning. Went off with Betty during the day to London road to a poundshop to buy bits of Christmassy stuff for the stage set of We Three Kings. Beth also prepared the music for the show. Not going to London, nor having any work, nor a rehearsal meant I had the luxury of a sleep this afternoon for an hour. Beth sorry to be missing the pie. Nice to speak to Matty this evening, having sent him some of my Chad poems, which he received while sitting in The...

A day of getting our holiday ducks in a row. Into town to pick up Euros a lot fewer than normal thanks to the weakness of the pound. (Cheers Brexiteers!) Also bought a new sheet and I bought some bland teeshirts from M&S.  Then home, and trying to get things organised. Beth and I then went for a business meeting in the Preston Park Tavern to discuss our new production at Christmas.  Then Lorraine and John joined us briefly for a quick pint before we went home for supper and a spot of packing frenzy. On another note, Matty boy and I and the rest of the Chiswick gang won our pitch. This is good news for the Kenny coffers as the new client insist I work on their account as I clearly get the brand. This good news as with the absence of any kind of feedback, we were thinking we may have lost it. A good way to commence the summer hols.

Up at six this morning, and off to the station to catch the 7:01 train to Blackfriars, which weirdly enough wasn't delayed, cancelled or anything. Preparing the pitch on the train, then met with Matty, Mark, Helen and Dave in the Starbucks. Then off to the charity to do our pitch. Went fairly well I think, Matty and Mark a very good double act, and I did my presentation well. Helen is nice, and has worked with Paula and Marcella in the past and said some good stuff. Dave who is out of his comfort zone pitching did well too. The client wasn't giving much away and we were the first agency they saw. All done by 11 o'clock and then a saunter along the street to Blackfriars where I eventually caught the train back to Brighton. Again playing patience on my computer, and listening to the audiobook The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro. I really like his writing. Home at 1:30 and after chatting to Lorraine, simply slept as I am still feeling a bit under the weather. Lorraine out ...

Up to London this afternoon unburdened by my computer for once, having worked on my own stuff this morning. After the business was done, with Matty boy and others in Turnham Green, Matt and I went across the road for a drink at the George, then down at the City Barge. A leisurely few drinks, and good to chat not least because Matt was on the other side of the Brexit business. Now that it is inevitable I am really keen to hear balancing views on this, because I seem to be in a bubble, fostered by Facebook and so on, of only hearing views that correspond with my own. Ultimately friendship is more important than politics. He is planning to get married next year too up in Cheshire, not far from Alderley Edge which I've often thought about visiting having read Alan Garner books set there when I was a kid. Stayed in the Barge for food and they are very attentive to Matt and so we got great service. Home late, and everyone in bed. I stayed up to watch an episode of Family Guy.