under another sun

Slept like a baby, apart from the attentions of Calliope this morning. Fed her and Brian, made tea and sat in bed with Lorraine and I caught up with my blog. Then up as Dawn came around for coffee. I left the ladies chatting and worked on my French stuff for a couple of hours, sending some ideas off to Paris. Spoke to Mas a couple of times. Mum now back home, which is good. Heard from Richard, and his new collection is going to be published by Blue Ormer, which is splendid. I needed an afternoon of indolence, feeling tired and depressive. Lorraine and I went for a walk around the block, then zombied in front of TV. We watched the Anchorman The Legend of Ron Burgundy , film, having never seen it before. Mildly amusing. Then all of the recent BBC adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's Decline and Fall which was very well done, funny and well paced. A brilliant adaptation I thought. And so to bed, setting my alarm for 6:15 tomorrow. As Nigel Molesworth might say, Chiz.

Working on various poems this morning, and writing something on the Telltale site. Then off to answer a Papal summons in The Bath Arms, for lunch (sausage and mash for me, and a bleeding steak for Catherine) and wide-ranging discussions with Catherine, including the recent uncovering of a Dickens rejection letter to Mrs Florence Marryat. A writer Catherine knows an enormous amount about. See Catherine's blog on the subject here.  Also received advice about going backwards on the cross trainer. Catherine amusingly went to extremes on the gym last year and doing an astonishing seven day a week routine, which even her personal trainer told her was too much. The wiry fit Pope clad in black lycra was what led to Tanya dubbing her Spiderpope, which still makes me laugh every time I think of it. From here back home, where I had a judicious snooze and started work on a new poem. This in response to a request to write a response to Willie the Shake's Sonnet 19, for an anthology. I hav...

Lorraine springing out of bed at six in the morning, and off to work fairly pronto. This is effectively the first day of her job, but the teachers and children don't arrive till tomorrow and she spent it sorting out her office. I sprang up too, slightly more gingerly due to the back gyp, and was at my desk early too. Chad stuff today, though needing to work on gusto levels which were lowish. Cass arrived at 8 o'clock to decorate the front room, filling the larger craters in the plaster and so on to tuneless whistling and singing to the radio, which I found oddly comforting. A really hard working, friendly guy doing honest work as I skulked in the Kenny nerve centre. At lunch a brisk walk down to Miss Mole's Flower Emporium (Lorraine's favourite shop) to buy her a present. It doesn't open till tomorrow. Later Lorraine and I decided to go at the weekend, where I shall buy her a larger present. When she got home and we cooked a curry with chicken and cauliflower an...

Lorraine and I had much careful discussion of houses, and have resolved to put an offer in on Monday. This a big decision. Beth in a lively mood at breakfast, and two of her pals Kayleigh and Becky slept over too, Kayleigh needing an icepack for her knee after a falling over during the evening. They all left early, and left Lorraine and I with the novelty of being on our own. A gorgeous day, and we went for a short stroll down to the Levels, past the soft smack of skateboarders hitting the ground, and along the planted gardens, past the Pavilion to the sea where thousands basked happily on the pebbles. A quiet evening. I am slowly feeling more human after a real health nadir. Lorraine cooked lovely food. She has also lost nine kilograms, there is definitely less of my wife than there was. Ominously, she made a graph for me too. I am nowhere near my heaviest but it would be good to lose weight - especially as drinking seems to be out of the question for a while. For none of those ...