under another sun

Lorraine and I eased ourselves gently into the new year. I was happy just to be spending quality time with my wife. Calliope seems somewhat improved today too, which is good. We went into town, in the rain and saw Star Wars The Next Jedi , just after noon. It was a good brainless hokum, with lots of spectacular zooming about in space and on distant planets, and various bits of Jedi malarky with light sabres. Of its kind, an excellent film. And it did manage to borrow a bit emotion too with the bits associated with Carrie Fisher, whose last role this was. I had an outburst of eccentricity before the show, was in the loo having a strategic pre film wee, and suddenly had a poem idea. Trying to record it on iPhone just outside the gents, muttering some guff about rotten fruit into my phone, gained me at least one funny look. As I was doing this, Lorraine bought teas. Tea the perfect drink for a film starting at 12:30. This done we emerged into the rain and decided to 5b it back home ...

A quiet day pottering about in Kenny towers after the long drive of yesterday. Lorraine and I went for stroll through Blakers's Park and onto the shops to buy some vegetables. Reading and relaxing in the afternoon. I tried several times to come up with a devastating summation of 2016 for my other blog, but failed. In the evening Anton came around and we sat in the kitchen drinking and eating snacks as Lorraine cooked us a rather excellent chicken and ham pie. Also spoke to Mum at this point too. Anton stiff and in pain from time to time after falling down the hill in Stanmer Park while out with Oskar. However after supper, we settled down to play Small World, a board game Anton gave us for Christmas. I found it rather complex, but it was fun and we drank and played this game, where you took on a Tolkeinesque race, such as in my case dwarves and rat people, and they have a variable special powers. Anton very keen on this game indeed. As usual, when the end came and the dust had se...

Lorraine and I off on a foray to five ways, nearby where we went to a shop and bought a small iron stag's head, which is our new hat stag, and some vegetables. We decided every home needs a hat stag.  Also sorting out the fire alarms for the house too. I did some admin and writing this afternoon.  Toby arrived this evening, and soon was jumping on the bus with Lorraine and I to Hove, and Rosie's new place, while Beth off to a funk and soul night with her pal Amy. A nice party to end the year. Rosie's mum Susan was there, but soon left. Then Emily, Rosie's sister and Tim arrived. Anton was there already, as was Rosie's nice pal from London Alice. Lots of chilli to eat, and cocktails mixed with varying degrees of expertise. Alice initiated a game at one point, where she sat around with string and cut them into varying lengths then hid them around the room, having banished all of us from it. Then we all looked for the string and then compared the length of the s...

A piper at the gates of the year I went about my various chores, and then sloped down to Lorraine's house for some lemony herby pasta thing, which was slimming and delicious. Chatted to Mark and Beth who have found a person to play the corpse in Wrong in March. Despite feeling sluggish and achy , I decided to head out and damn the torpedoes. Out with Sam and Lorraine to the restaurant Wayne manages. A lovely space inside and is where we are going to stage This concert will fall in love with you again in February. Wayne zooming about hospitably, but Matt ill this evening. We sat for a while with Wayne's family, but it was a little awkward and hard to talk over the music. Then Wayne flagged a taxi and we three repaired to the Basketmakers , where people were singing, dancing and full of cheer. We happened to be on a table next to a kilted Scotsman who soon unleashed his bagpipes to enormous acclaim. I love the wild sound of bagpipes but this being England, one or two weren...

Free from desire The new year sees me feeling pleasingly Buddhist about things. I'm not fixated on outcomes - the idea that you'll only be happy if x happens. My fervent hope is that I can just continue what I've been doing for another year. My resolutions are few: simply to focus on the work at hand, and to be the best Peter Kenny I can be. After travelling back from London, I was still Lemsipping and snuffling. I decided to at least go, with Lorraine, to Battle of Trafalgar. This is, after all, is but a spit away. There I bumped into two of my neighbours, Mark and Hilary. I've never properly spoken to them before, but it turns out they are both extremely nice. Mark is an accomplished trombonist I've often heard rehearsing, and Hilary a teacher, who often teaches music. We all seemed to have quite a bit to say to one another. Time slipped past and the new year stole upon us over a pint of Harvey's bitter. And nothing wrong with that. New Year's day was spen...

To thine own self be true Happy new year! This new year's morning I have just walked out into the corner store in what seems a very sleepy Brighton, subdued in the aftermath of fireworks and partying, not to mention the two men who ran back and forth in the twitten making Native American style whoopings in the night. However I party pooped, thanks to the flu (aka the humbug). But this was good as I got to talk to Mum and Toby and Lorraine and take happy new year texts from many others. On the 30th, which was Mum's birthday, I travelled back down to Brighton. I felt a bit sad that I had brought only extra laundry and sore lungs to Mum and Mas for Christmas. It felt good to glimpse the great outside and to exploit the opportunity to glare balefully at people with my fiery Sauron eyes. Lorraine came around shortly after I arrived, and cooked me a meal, and generally took care of me. As a hypochondraic, I find knowing that she used to be a ward sister a great comfort. This time las...

A potter in the mountains Last day of the new year, and not one I will look back on with completely unmixed affection, though there have been some excellent parts too, such as my holiday in Guernsey with my family... And this trip to Japan is an excellent way to end it. Today we took Jennifer off to the shinkansen station in Kakegawa as she is returning to Hong Kong. After we said goodbye to Jennifer (who I always think of as Jen-i-fah wa ? or where`s Jennifer? a refrain of Hiroko's when we were travelling) we sloped off for some more food. This time I tried a Japanese curry with udon noodles. Not so wild about this meal as some of the others. And we ate in a restaurant which made me feel like Gulliver in Lilliput as the space was so cramped, and barging around makes the locals snicker. Then up to Kakegawa castle which was closed, but we had a really lovely view there over town and the mountains around. We took a scenic drive back home, through the hills and got slightly lost. How...