under another sun

Mercury is retrograde, which astrologers claim sends communications awry. Astrology may be bunk, but it mirrors the scrambled and patchy communications arriving at the PK outpost, waiting for Godot-like briefs and emails to be answered. Nevertheless a great day's work on the business book. I will soon have a large enough sample to go fishing with it. A warmish blue-skied day, so went out for an hour at lunchtime gulping the fresh air. Paid a cheque into my bank, and then strayed onto the pier. A dozen people on deck chairs; a mother basking with her eyes firmly closed, absorbing the sun on her face while being tormented by her bored son, and others eyed by seagulls as they dozed to the cheesy music drifting from the speakers. Admittedly the sun-baskers were wearing coats, but nevertheless an omen of better things. Seen from the pier, the pebbles on the beach now in two colours, the dark sea-wetted edge, and the sun dried beach several tones lighter. Walking home along Lond...

Clockwise The train thing is getting beyond a joke. Up at a quarter to six this morning to be in good time to meet my colleagues at Euston station. Got on a train at Edgware , which instantly broke down before it had left the station. After a wait, got on another tube train reasoning I still had an hour to do the 30 minute journey in. After a few stops the entire Northern Line ground to a halt. A 30 minute wait at Brent Cross station meant I missed my connection with my three colleagues to go up to Manchester for the pitch. Much frenzy and grinding of teeth on my part. However Hannah texted me to say that if I caught the next train to Manchester, I could meet them them before our onward train left. I would have four minutes in Manchester Piccadilly to find them. My train was delayed outside Manchester but I just managed to find them and leap onto the connecting train which itself was delayed by two minutes. A surge of relief. But it wasn't over. We arrived to our destination stati...

Mercury retrograde Anton on the morning train, and we had a laugh before joining in the general groaning when more delays were announced. We sat in the unmoving train a few miles outside Croydon as the conductor broadcast a message about being delayed for ten minutes, and the woman next to us began a fairly good humoured rant about how railway minutes were like Irish country miles. I suggested it was bad for the capital, having trainloads of furious commuters disgorged into its very heart. Mercury retrograde this week which, according to astrologers, means disrupted communications. For me, every journey without exception has been delayed. And my phone at work has an intermittent fault and won't ring, and the wireless router I've ordered has gone AWOL. Maybe it was behind a return of the horrible skewering feeling of missing MJ and the kids. And maybe it is behind all the things that went wrong at work, bungled presentations and so on. But the intense pressure at least enabled...