under another sun

The big house clean this morning, much hoovering and arranging and cleaning of things, prior to Sam and Jade coming to stay. An old agency pal, Phil dropped in and we had coffee in the back garden. Good to chat, he is a very interesting guy, and has a really funny way with a story. He gave me a horrendous account of a friend of his accidentally killing a neighbour's cat that had broken into his kitchen at 4 am. An appalling story of a woodland burial and the guilty friend seeing posters of the missing cat for weeks on end. It reminded me of Crime and Punishment. The afternoon willingly taken up with kitchen porter duties, as Lorraine was on an enormous cooking mission, making a variety of curries. I sent a few emails arranging an interview with Pascale Petit next week. Sam and Jade, driven by Beth from the station, arrived early evening. A cheery evening, having a few drinks, eating Lorraine's delicious curries, and playing Trivial Pursuit afterwards which Lorraine won. B...

Up with the sparrows this morning, and made Lorraine breakfast before she went on her way. For me a day of writing deathless poetry was plan A. A rambling sort of poem I started at the beginning of the week fell fully formed into place as an excellent (I think) short poem. Made me think of Keats and his idea that poetry should come as naturally as leaves to a tree or not at all. Things all progressing swimmingly interspersed with stroking and gloating over my new iMac. The cats being suspicious this morning, and then Calliope arrived with a 100% alive mouse. They had a stand off in my study, and when the poor squeaking thing turned to face Calliope, she suddenly lost her nerve for a second. Then the mouse ran around my study and hid. Calliope in hot pursuit crashing through all my precious things, computer wires, guitars etc. like an angry poltergeist. Having rolled my socks up over my trousers I was on Facebook and got advice. Charlotte said to put down a cereal packet and this almo...

A slow and cheery start to Saturday. Off to Maplins, which is catnip for Lorraine, to buy a box which allows videos to be turned into DVDs via a computer. Slighly unbelievably off to The Basketmakers again, where I introduced Lorraine to an old pal of mine Phil, had a really good chat. Lorraine left after a while to pick up a Video player for £1 from an ebayer in Brighton. (She has been busy looking at old videos and transferring them across formats. There are lots of videos of Beth dancing and performing as a child, which need to be transferred.) Phil meanwhile talked about his first stand up comedian performance recently, and had a really good time doing it. and has also taken up boxing, which he also enjoys, for some reason. He says when people hit you hard you see stars. All a bit tough and macho for me. As a hypochondriac having people punch you in the head until you see stars is something I would run a mile from. He also told me about having run the Vic Reeves and Bob Mortim...

Up to the smoke Crammed in a bit of work for my lovely French client, and received some handy advice from Ash with some top tips today on sourcing a digital printer. Caught a train up to the smoke, and then to Hammersmith. On entering my old agency's doors I bumped into the French Bloke who was also meeting Max and Matty boy, and three of the FB and Max's lovely children, all rather greatly grown up since I last clapped eyes on them. That bouncy Max is looking fab. I went for lunch with Keith in the Distillers, and had a good agency gossip. Bumped into Mike Ferg. I told him he was looking well. He told me I was looking jowly. D'oh. Then off to meet Pat and the French Bloke in their agency for a long chat and a coffee. Was a little early, so lurked about looking at the street Carl used to live in. And took the opportunity to talk to Richard by phone about A Guernsey Double . So nice to talk to Richard as I walked among each chartered street. He'd been going through one o...

Cool for cats Discovered today by tracking my Dell order that the Windows 7 upgrade is not due until 26 November. Several tiresome conversations with folks in India, now have restored my computer to limp on with Vista, but will be able to work, which is a boon. However in reinstalling iTunes every single one has duplicated, meaning I have to erase about 3000 tunes from it. Good grief. Was called by the neuropathic pain people, and I've agreed to go to London tomorrow to help out on another concept. This rather breaks up my week, but at least it means a smidge more cash, which is always welcome. Spoke to Phil today, all well with Ash and the new baby. Have Lorraine's keyboard in my living room at the moment. Spent fifteen minutes or so noodling around on it, to stop myself from smashing up the computer. At one point Calliope, who had been watching attentively, briskly walked onto it, changed the setting with a swipe of her paw to a sort of organ sound and played a few bars of so...

A curious coincidence Cooler today. Donned the socks that Joan knitted. Transpires that Calliope keenly attracted to them and had my toe bitten quite hard at one point. Also keenly feeling the fact my desktop computer is still not working. If the last Dell estimate of delivery is to be believed, I should have the software midweek. The jobs which are making me feel most anxious because they are not done, such as the anthology of Guernsey stuff, and starting phase two of the Skelton Yawngrave campaign, require me to have that computer. Got a text to say that Phil and Ash, of my old agency Dell posse, have had a little girl today. An eight pounder, which is excellent news for them. Otherwise, I worked on three poems and generally made them worse. Sat in Starbucks for a change of scene and tinkered over a large skinny latte. I read Richard's poems for the book, and some of them are wonderful. It is strange that when I read his work there are things in it that I have half thought of wri...

Ninja daisy Breakfast with Ash and Phil, and later Aimee. Having cleverly avoided drinking myself into oblivion the night before, I actually felt fairly fresh this morning as we ate breakfast overlooking the mountain to the south of Westport that kept losing its head in clouds. I want to go back there one day. Wanted to pop out for a breath of air. Aimee in lively capering fashion decided to turn into a bit of a scramble around the perimeter of the grounds. She did this clutching a flower, which she called the Ninja daisy, which she used to compel me to follow her. After this adventure, off to pack and meet up with everyone before we went off to the beach under the cloud shrouded mountain. Was stunningly beautiful, with the sun spotlighting bits every now and then. The sky changes so rapidly everything looks different all the time. Makes me think of W.B. Yeats. The west of Ireland is a magical place. Then the long trip home. A drive through the countryside to Knock airport, where we at...

Friday night in Matt Molloy's Off to Ireland for Marcella and Adrian's wedding. A long journey from Brighton to Stanstead, but I met Aimee - who was over from Dubai for the wedding- on the Stanstead Express. After making it past oddly obnoxious security people met Phil, Ash and Paula. Once onboard I grabbed a window seat for, as everyone knows, my duty to is keep the plane aloft through sheer will power. Despite this, found time for a heart to heart with Paula. Landed in Knock airport after flying over beautiful Irish countryside, which seemed to have lots of lakes and is much emptier than England. We all shared the hire of a car and Phil drove us the lovely Knockranny House Hotel which was about an hour away. Lovely hotel, with a big welcoming fire in the lobby, and gorgeous views of mountains and down into Westport. After a cheeky 40 minutes sleep, we met more pals and got into a cab which took us down into town. This is the second time I've been here, the last time was ...

The false rubber tongue of destiny Not a great deal to report for Friday, other than the glory of it being a Friday. However I seemed to be working flat out all day, which isn't really the idea of Fridays. Still a cheery atmosphere and a possible resolution to the ridiculously painful business of choosing music for the TV advert adaptation. But I heard some rushes and realised that the script which I'd had to adapt wasn't much good. It's so much easier just to do things from scratch, rather than second guess and tinker. A leaving do tonight for Phil after he'd been at the agency for ten years. Stood in the works bar looking around me and realised that I was now one of the real old hands at the place, which is not necessarily a good thing in an agency. However it was good night and I was sorry to see Phil go. However we'll keep in touch. Big manly hugs after the call of the seagull was heard. Hadn't had an evening in the agency bar for many months, and it wa...