under another sun

So a gentle start to the day, Lorraine working from home today and me with no work. We had a 'business meeting' this morning and we chased the Estate Agents and the Solicitors over cups of tea in the kitchen.  No reply from the award winning Estate Agents, and we chivvied the award winning Solicitors. At the end of the day the Estate Agent got back with the promising news that our buyer's mortgage was approved and they were in a position to move. Yesterday Lorraine spoke with the Estate Agent in Seaford, saying we wanted to move sooner rather than later. After the call, however, it occurred to me that we may have to pay a deposit when we exchange contracts -- and we might need a short term bridging loan. Cross with myself that we hadn't clarified this earlier.    Otherwise a lazy day. Lorraine not feeling full of pep, so had an easy day. I went to the gym, and did a workout while listening to Stephen Fry read Sherlock Holmes's story The Man With The Twisted Lip . I...

Friday, and up early Keith and I working from 8:30 to present at 11 am. Felt fairly cheery today. Our presentation went as well as could be expected. Keith in one of his nose to the grindstone modes meant that we worked through lunch and finished at 4:30. We are finishing the job next Monday and Tuesday. I mooched off to the gym, and returned to find stuff from my accountant, and a new wee job from the Germans waiting for me to do over the next few days.  The gym not too busy. I have been 12 times in the last three weeks I feel better for it, but my stomach is still too fat. Listening to an audiobook of all the  Sherlock Holmes stories being read by Stephen Fry, who reads them excellently. I have read most of them years ago, but they are escapist fun, and to hear them is a different experience. Walked home across the park feeling a sense of Friday cheer.   Lorraine and I home at tea time. I collected a small curry and we chilled out. There was a solicitor letter to read, ...

Another day at the conceptual coalface with Keith. Began to work through some of the difficulties we had run into yesterday, and then presented them on at lunchtime. Turns out the client had moved the goalposts somewhat and this became a bit of a re-brief, which we worked at without cracking it for a few hours. Last thing another meeting with Pat and Michel and a long discussion from which we all emerged with a new direction, which Keith and I are going to progress tomorrow. Working all day on this, without going out or thinking about much else.  Heard from Katie that she was reading Bleak House too. A short fifteen minute walk in the cold at six, and then cooked and Lorraine came home, and we lounged on the gold sofa for a bit watching Sherlock, a series I had not really watched much the first time around. And so to bed. Reading a bit more of S.T. Joshi in bed. He seems to think being dismissive and savage makes him a good critic. It doesn't.

The work I sent to Paris yesterday went down well, and just a smidge of checking work to be done at some point once they have let their in house creatives loose on it to tidy up. Did some tinkering with Grace 2. Went for only a short walk. Otherwise I chose today to do a thorough tidy up of my study, and filed stuff away and got sorted, and feel a good deal better for it. If in doubt, tidy up. Always works. Was listening to Prince while I did so. Beth cheerily checking out another flat today, so she drove Lorraine to and from school. Anton popped around in his car to pick up the Sherlock Holmes game he lent us. Although, unlike Lorraine, I dislike boardgames (something that Anton sees as a moral failing of the worst sort) the Sherlock Holmes game was one I disliked less than most. Anton took the opportunity to insist that my blue front door was purple and that this was also a failure on my part to see colour properly. I considered showing him the paint tin with blue written on it, ...

Off to Edinburgh trundling down to Preston Park, and then off to St Pancras, then crossing the road, we had a coffee and boarded the train to Edinburgh. A long journey, fairly pleasant too, with us talking to two characterful older women sitting next to us. Hours of the journey was taken up with playing Sherlock Holmes in great detail. We finally got to the end of the first case, and Lorraine decided we had solved most of it. Also played DinoDump, the card came with pictures of dinosaurs and dinosaur poop on it, slightly mystifying the two ladies next to us, one of whom in particular had led a colourful life in the US and well into her seventies, now having moved up to Scotland. We arrived at Waverley Station in the dark at around tea time, and caught a cab to Kew House on Kew Terrace, a pleasant Bed and Breakfast and we were greeted by Alan, a friendly and loquacious gentleman who explained how to hail a cab and other information useful to martians. A good clean and comfortable room...

Up after a good night's sleep. Beth and her pals Emily and Eliza fragile after a long and lively night, and needing breakfast. Otherwise a fairly quiet day. Went for a walk in the park with Lorraine and excitingly dried clothes in the launderette. While sitting about in the kitchen this afternoon, Lorraine and I started playing the Sherlock Holmes game that Anton had lent us. Involved lots of reading, and thinking about clues, which led to drinking some wine the girls had brought us. A nice interlude.  Match of the Day was watchable tonight too, with Chelsea winning, and the bonus of the Manchesters City and Utd both losing. Spoke to Toby, who said there was a strike affecting his school tomorrow. My dratted phone ran out of power as we talked. More stressing this morning over getting the layout right for the kindle book. But it is now okay I think. After I texted Ellie this morning, she finally revealed to Carl that she had done the cover for Magnificent Grace. He was really...

A bit more in focus revisited the story, The Merger , I wrote on holiday in Sicily, and also the What You Look For story I wrote shortly before I left. I sent What You Look For to Matthew Rees at Horla with fingers crossed. I also started working on the cover for Magnificent Grace. Lorraine working at home today. I got busy with the water pressure cleaner on the decking, and took off most of a year's worth of grime and guano. This is the closest I came to working with power tools, and it made me feel like a man.    In the evening we walked off to meet Anton in the Batty, where he handed over a Sherlock Holmes game for L and I to play. We had a bite to eat there, and generally caught up on gossip. Anton having the massive pain of having to sort out the identity theft that happened a few weeks ago, people buying stuff in Brighton. He is off on a short holiday with the bairns next week.  We left the Batty which is in its final weeks before the new owners take ov...

Sleepy and unfocused as the lively weekend took its toll. I went to London today for a general mooch around and to meet Mario Petrucci, who is an old friend who has become a fairly famous poet. I waited some time for him at Baker Street station, where I was early and he very delayed by appalling trains. Reminded me of times I used to meet Mum there when we both worked in London as I lurked by the Sherlock Holmes statue. Waiting gave me the opportunity to do a spot of freelance tour guiding, being obliged to point people to the nearby Madame Tussuad's. Great to see Mario, who I had not seen in a couple of decades.  He had commuted down from Brunel University, where he has a residency. We repaired to a local cafe and spent two and a half hours chatting. I had re-read his  iTulips recently, and this really is a magnificent book; spare and modernist, but full of beautiful words and imagery and vibrant emotion. I told him how much I admired it. He t...

Elephants with furry faces Lorraine up with the sparrows and me not far behind her. I made my way to the Twitten, and showed a nice couple in their 30s around the place. And in the afternoon showed Jim the Sparky the equipotential bonding problem, for this is the kind of thing I now do at the drop of a hat. He says it is an easy fix and will do it next week, and thankfully he mentioned a price which didn't Van de Graaf what's left of my hair. We have a Bulgarian cleaner called Sonia. She showed me her passport and seemed keen to show that she was a Bulgar and not a burglar. I like her but communication is difficult. It's weird, I am about to become a landlord, and I have a cleaner. The young and briefly-Marxist Peter Kenny would look at me with starting eyes. Poor Lorraine not home till 9:30. I cooked a spinach and chicken curry. Basil the cat barging about the place excitedly as I did so. Basil is so porcine she cannot fit through the catflap, neither Lorraine nor Betty li...