under another sun

Lorraine came down with flu this afternoon, badly timed as Sam was back in Brighton  for one day. She managed to spend the afternoon with him before feeling increasingly grim. Sam looking dapper, and with a longish beard, which he combed a good deal. Meanwhile I also did some Christmas shopping, which was surprisingly painless despite it pouring with rain though, as I threaded about town with all the other dripping shoppers, listening to the final bit of Seasons in the Sun and its tales of grim 1970s politics as I did so.  However after a while, I turned it off and revelled in a Christmassy feeling. Home later, and watching the Patrick Stewart version of A Christmas Carol.  It is a great story. Jane meanwhile in another photoshoot as Camilla, which you can see here . Below Stewart as Scrooge.

After briefing Francesca, a designer, by phone my freelance work for the year was done and dusted.  I busied myself with minor domestic chores, and making mistakes of one sort or another, discovering I had sent cards in the wrong envelops being one. Sonya came and I gave her a card and some extra money. She thought a present that happened to be sitting near the card was hers too, and I had to embarrassingly admit it wasn't, and she explained that the last people she saw her weighed her down with presents. Felt like a cheapskate after this. Especially as my card misspelled her name Sonia too. Freed from work, I spent much of the day listening to  Seasons in the Sun  by Dominic Sandbrook. Much of British political history in the 20th century seems a shambolic mess, and this is a really quite gripping tale. I am now reading about how the Unions forced down Callaghan's Labour government in the first wintry months of 1979 ('the winter of discontent'), unwittingly usherin...

As yesterday, pushing on with the business book. Broke off at noon to meet Anton in the Marwood Cafe. I am avoiding coffee, but had tea. He showed me a new game on his iPad and we talked about marketing and the history of Britain 1974-79 as depicted in Seasons in the Sun and other business perched on stools on a table with human-shaped moulded legs. Returning home, I eventually pinned down the plumbers to a time and price. Felt good about this, and about completing the rewrite of the introductory 'Orientations' section of the business book. The business case for my ideas is now made more clearly, without losing I hope, its readability. Lorraine out at a retirement do this evening. I meanwhile kept a low profile. I had been invited to a booze up with the music boys in the Evening Star, but I avoided this being laced with antibiotics etc.   Listening to Seasons in the Sun and watching the first half of the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe movie again. I love the mo...

Nightmares have returned, which I think are triggered somehow by the antibiotics. Since I was a child I have dreamed about tornadoes, and in my dream I was walking through a post apocalyptic city, crawling into some kind of broken carriage or freight container and then lofted high into the sky by twisting black clouds. Unnecessary. As is Brian's new 4 am trick of returning to the house and miaowing at two-second intervals downstairs, then up the stairs and then into the bedroom, where Lorraine asks him what's wrong and he goes suddenly quiet. Kept a low profile today, but thinking hard about the relationships between brands and creative territories for  the business book, and listening to my  Seasons in the Sun audiobook again. Emails with Sophie and Matty boy, and a nice chat with Bob. Decked the Christmas tree with lights, and turned them on just before Lorraine came home. They didn't work, which Lorraine said was a schoolboy mistake as I hadn't checked t...

Curiously got out of the right side of the bed this morning, and have officially have had a word with myself about being a walking one-man gloomfest. So, cheerily, off to the Twitten where the new plumber, much to my stunned surprise, was actually early and Gary had let him in. After conversations about showers, returned home for a bit, spoke to Anton, before hoofing off to the quack to restock with antibiotics. A long wait due to a computer problem, but listening to Seasons in the Sun , a history book subtitled T he Battle for Britain 1974-79 by Dominic Sandbrook. Particularly enjoyable for me as I was a teenager at this time and it mixes in lots of cultural and social stuff to give the political struggle context. An absorbing, if right-leaning, interpretation of the times. Out again this afternoon to meet Sophie, as she was somewhat delayed I found myself in Starbucks again drinking a cup of earl grey tea, where I wrote some new words for a song which I will send to Matt about au...