under another sun

Cavorting at the Marlborough After popping by Matt's place this morning to collect a turntable for Sam's birthday, off to the seafront this morning with Mum and Mas, where we had a big breakfast outside at the Meeting Place cafe between Brighton and Hove. Beautiful sea with white horses, and striations of darker blue under the clouds. An effect I was enjoying till Mason pointed at the darker horizon and said this is exactly what a tsunami would look like. Then to an art shop in Hove that Mum knew of. She floated happily about the aisles and I found myself buying some oil pastels, which I have never used before, imagining fondly that I would have time to use them. At lunchtime the changing of the guard, with Maureen and Pat arriving from Kent. And Lorraine and I took both sets of parents off to The Battle of Trafalgar and a jolly little drink before it was time for Mum and Mase to return to London. Shortly after I went to the theatre. Everyone more calm today. Beck...

First night Lorraine and I drove the props and costumes to the Marlborough, while the others taxied over. Once in I left Beth, Mark and Callum to cover boxes in foil, organise the lights and get themselves ready. Lorraine and I off to collect Mum and Mas from the train station, and taken home, before I left again for the theatre. The afternoon spent on rehearsals. A dire dress rehearsal ramped up the tension even more, with me rather tetchy. Not my finest hour. Ate some surprisingly great chicken burgers and then it was time to roll. Our sound and lighting person Becky arrived with an hour or so to spare. I sat nervously downstairs with Mum and Mase, Paul arrived with a lady friend Channa and then between about 7:15 and 7:45 not one person arrived. Then, thank goodness, several groups of people turned up at the last moment and suddenly there was an audience. I lurched upstairs with Tarik, and introduced Pack of Three show and off they went. First was Wrong , which had been perf...

Aliens, Lazarus technology and The Cloud Of Things That Must Be Done Vets again, to put a new chip in Calliope who bolted as soon as she saw the carrier and howled piteously there and back in the car. What a simple idea it seemed at first to put a catflap through the glass door. But of course the glaziers cut the flap hole in the wrong place so the generously-proportioned Basil becomes lodged in it. New glass is coming, so theoretically all three cats will now be able to use the flap. Now we need to get money back from the manufacturers of the cat flap which should have recognised Calliope's original chip. Multiply this small saga by about twenty and you have The Cloud Of Things That Must Be Done. On the positive side Dawny is already busy painting and decorating in my place. Meanwhile Betty, Mark and Callum returned from shopping sporting hilarious alien clothes. I'm feeling very optimistic about the show this week. Betty and I go to meet Tarik tomorrow to discuss pract...

Costumes and tapas in the park Lorraine and I out to buy food and wood wax first thing this morning. The wax bought from a wood shop where there were several buckets and a rather morose man serving as water fell from the ceiling. Then home to eat a large breakfast with Toby, who had been watching The Jeremy Kyle show. Betty, Mark and Callum were there too, gathering to rehearse for Pack of 3 . Then Toby set off for a slow walkabout in Brighton. Lorraine went to the Twitten bearing doubloons to pay Dawn for the paint she has bought to do my house. Lorraine and Dawn also met a general builder who is going to fix my kitchen ceiling and the back yard. This all constitutes progress, but involves spending lots of cash. I was at the Masquerade costume shop, which is handily just around the corner from The Old Church Hall with Betty, Mark and Callum as they tried on various pirate and alien costumes. Betty has an excellent spacegirl outfit. Much laughter. Loads of clobber hired,...

Charleston Forgot to mention yesterday that the front of the oven, which is glass, burst apart shortly after Lorraine had cooked. Lorraine thankfully insured, and mysterious glass explosions are covered amazingly enough. An atrocious night's sleep. There are two black cats who live locally who Basil and Brian have been warring with. They invaded at about 4pm and Lorraine and I started awake to the sound of a riot downstairs. Sam called Lorraine at 6:30am with the excellent news that his place at Leeds University had been secured, and called later having learned his A level grades. A fabulous two As three Bs at A level. Bookcases were delivered. These have been recycled by horny-handed gentlemen of Brighton from wood used by scaffolders. A late breakfast then with the Tobster and then off to Charleston House , home of Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant, and haunt of the Bloomsbury crowd, including Vanessa's sister Virginia Woolf, E.M. Forster, John Maynard Keynes and many o...

Read-throughs Slept like a large log after last night's wild dancing. After returning to the Twitten and attending to a few chores and matters, I listened again to the CD recordings, and marvelled at what Matt and I have achieved. Very exciting. I returned to L's house where I met Betty, Mark, and Callum to discuss the new plays, and brief Becky who is going to be our production elf. Had a first run through of Betty the Spacegirl , which will be excellent I think. Mark's play Pirates Anonymous coming on very well too. Mark is I think going to do extremely well when he slopes off to do a degree in comedy writing next term. Nice to see Callum, who I've not seen since Wrong in March. I am looking forward to our 'Pack of 3' night greatly. Then Lorraine came back armed with loads of shopping. And after the others had left, and Betty had left for work in Eastbourne we ate lovely roast supper and sat watching the Swedish Wallander, before I returned home to ready mys...

Unknotting A relaxed monday. Spent time sending designing posters and flyers, and sending images and copy off to The Marlborough Theatre for our Pack of 3 show at the end of August. Mercifully the computer is working well, though I still don't trust it. Also bumped into David Sheppeard from the theatre as I came out of the gym. A long gym session. Am working harder than ever there now as I have got very fat again. I get fat when I'm stressed, so whenever there is a big project going on where I am likely to be photographed, this will always coincide with chubbiness. It's sod's law. I had cunningly scheduled a massage today, a whole hour from three. Floated out from it dreamily, today's one not having been too agonising, though there are a few places she kuckles that make you want to yelp. Came back and sat before my computer for a while but my brain was mush. Spent the evening toying inconclusively with ideas for the CD booklet.

Photographs Hard disk passed away in the night. A few words were said, followed by an arm-thrashing dance. (Typing this on old steam-driven laptop I'd given to Lorraine). Limbo-ish day. Rehearsed my lines for This Concert for some hours in the morning then followed Brian Eno’s advice: if in doubt, tidy up. Spoke to Mum and Mas. Mum said she had been working on her heads. This summons several images and only after some time do large painted big cat heads come to mind. In the afternoon I went to see Adrian and Di. Adrian showed me the shots he had taken. Miraculously, given there were minuscule amounts of light in the place, he has created some wonderfully evocative images for us. In one or two I don’t look too porcine, which is nice. Some lovely shots of Matt conducting and looking intense. Enjoyable chat with Adrian. Di saying that this month would bring abundance for a Chinese feng shui reason. I hope she's right. Chastened by man mountain pictures, sped off to the gym for ...

Inspiron rage Hot night. Woke up and trying to fix computer today,which at least turns on again. Infuriatingly after running various diagnostics I stupidly ended up buying a fix online which didn't work. Realised only then that it was a dubious at best company and so, feeling foolish, had to cancel my credit card. Managed not to become furious which was an achievement. And also followed up a promising business lead. My computer is a Dell Inspiron, and when I used to work on the Dell account at my old agency I used to write an ongoing soap called 'Rage of the Inspirons'. They are getting their revenge. Otherwise little to report. Started to design the promotional material for the plays in August, which we are calling 'Pack of 3'. Sloped off to the air conditioned gym in the afternoon. Spent an hour or two this evening rehearsing This concert will fall in love with you downstairs while Calliope looked on with interest. Not my most productive of days. But thank God my...