under another sun

A long slog of an edit today. Sent off the interview for Robin to listen to. In the afternoon I took myself for a longish walk by the sea. While doing so I called Sophie as I had been dreamt about her twice in the last week, so my subconscious was prompting me to call her. She was busy as ever running her business, and it was excellent to talk to her after far too long. She sounded in pretty good spirits, and Christof and Electra are both with her at the moment. Another busy day for Lorraine off to her personal trainer,  then went to see our charming dentist, and in the evening to her book group at Delores's place.  I lay low when not editing, and rather pleased not to be socialising. I watched a documentary called Wild Combination about the US composer Arthur Russell, that Reuben said I'd like. I liked it lots. I knew his music a little, but the documentary was quite moving. He died of AIDS in 1992. The weather all over the place and cold still. Here are two snaps this aftern...

Up and breakfasting when Tom arrived. Then L off to work and I sat down and wrote for five hours, reaching my ambitious daily target for Nothing compares to you quite easily today. Then to the gym, Sainsburys and then back again to continue assessing the marketing project and how to repurpose it for Kindle. I made meatballs this evening, chatted to Tom who had gone to the gym, and then had our dinner outside when Lorraine got home, even playing a game of scrabble as the sun went down. I spoke to Sophie having been a poor friend to her in recent months. She was touchingly good about it though, and said she had loads of support from family and so on. I will properly chat to her next week. Turns out today is the day before the anniversary of Andros' death, although I had not consciously realised this. Notes with Richard and Jane, who sadly we will miss when we go to Guernsey as they will be in Belgium. The idea of going to Guernsey really exciting. We watched the second o...

Feeling workshy and unable to focus well. Up early with Lorraine. After Lorraine went to work I chipped a few bits off this week's wee list. A blazing day today, I went for another walk, intending as a minimum to do my ten thousand paces.  On the pavement near the golf course I passed a young woman with two black dogs on leads.  As I passed her, one went for me nastily. It made me jump. Lots of ladybirds about today by the golf course, getting in my hair and on my skin. Good news from Beth, yet another actor she has been teaching got a distinction in their Lamda. Carl called me today. He is definitely winding up his business, and feeling all the happier for it. I also had a long chat with Sophie, who I'd not managed to talk to while all the stuff with Janet and Ken was going on. She is throwing herself back into work, now that Andros is gone. It has been a very tough time for her, but she is a strong person. I can't seem to write anything, nor read much.  I spen...

To London today, walked to Brighton Station, because due to the new timetable implementation services from Preston Park have been ruined. There is a facebook protest group and so on, and local outrage and Caroline Lucas our MP getting involved etc. Off to see Sophie up in Highgate. She is heartbroken, but having to keep everything together, and still managing her business. It is very hard. Christof was there too, but he didn't feel like socialising. Sophie prepared a bit of lunch, and then we walked in the woods behind her house for some time, sitting on a park bench drinking takeaway coffee from the cafe, where one of Electra's friend's Bliss was working. Now a young woman of about twenty, I met Bliss once before when she was a child, and I remember one of her parents bellowing up the stairs for Bliss, which always makes me laugh when I think about it.  Long chats with Sophie, there is not much to be done really, other than listen and talk and show your support. So...

Lorraine and I heard the upsetting news today that Andros had died. An email from Sophie, saying that the funeral would be held next Tuesday. I shall of course be going to it, although as it is the first day back at school, as headteacher Lorraine won't be able to. Otherwise we had a lazy day today.  When we eventually crawled out of bed, we sauntered down for  breakfast in the Salon du té. It was our hottest day so far, and the super stylish manageress, who seems to have taken a liking to Lorraine, gave us a plate of baklava sweetened with honey. Delicious stuff.  We did not seek out museums or art galleries today, but decided to get our travel sorted and mooched up to the station and bought tickets (remarkably easily by simply explaining in Spanish that I didn't have Spanish) for Saturday. The timings for the journey are going to be tight however. Instead after a walk we spent lots of time basking by the pool, reading and unwinding. Then another evening walk in the ...

Up slowly, and had some breakfast, before Lorraine and I walked down to the Marwood where we met Sophie and Andros for a coffee and a good deal of talking too. Just really good fun to be hanging out with them again. Appropriately, we sat in the Naughty Corner. I drank three coffees. Good to hear about how Christof and Electra were doing, and talk to Andros about films and Sophie about life. Looking again at The Shining door they have there complete with a plastic Jack Nicholson face poking through it. Of course Andros worked on The Shining . Fond farewells, Sophie and Andros heading back off to London, and Lorraine and I went home by bus, and Lorraine worked on school things, and I did bits of my own work, cooked and so on.  Also did some sorting out of clothes, and our shared wardrobe. We threw out lots of my ratty teeshirts.

Lorraine drove us off first thing to the excellent Top Cats at Patcham this morning with Calliope moaning on the back seat. She had a scratch inside her ear last week which despite Lorraine bathing it with salt water has become infected, and when she shakes her head a shower of unpleasantness is liberated from it. Really nice vet who injected her with antibiotics and cleaned her sore ear, indignities which Calliope tolerated incredibly well.  The bonus for me was that she slept most of the day sleeping as the various drugs did their work, which meant my desktop daemon was absent. Spoke to Sophie and Anton this morning amid ticking a dozen more things from the list of things that must be done. Lorraine working from home all morning before travelling across the county to train governors and suchlike. I popped out for a walk in the beautiful sunshine for a short spell before work again. I am all about the work at the moment Half watched a Manchester United match in the evening aga...

Poor night's sleep, but up and off to Tavistock Square. Tinkering with advertising copy for Sophie on the train. Then into see my friends at the agency. Sat next to Pat and working on copy for the digital department about the rollout of an app. Pulses not thrumming, but it was nice to see everyone and good for the besieged Kenny coffers. Sloped out at lunch with Katie, in drenching rain. Interminable seeming journey home. However once back I skipped Niles Crane-like to the decanter, whereupon I poured two thimble sized glasses of PX (Pedro Ximénez) sherry for Lorraine and me. Lorraine had written down our description of it in a special book earlier in the week. We got prunes, figs, raisins, and notes of liquorice. Delicious. And so, early, to bed.

Rather a full day. Lorraine working at home today too, still nurturing her heel. I pushed on with the book, did more stuff connected with the infernal house sale,  and sloped off to the gym despite having a bit of a swollen knee, which after a long workout weirdly sorted itself out. Odd.  Called by my amigos in Tavistock Square to book me for the rest of the week.  Dawn called me too, and we are going to do a session together for gifted and talented children about poetry and advertising, which should be really good fun. Also called by Sophie about an advert for her too. A rice and fish and steamed veggies supper, then I made off to the a bar full of Scandinavians called Northern Lights, where the Shakespeare Heptet were playing. I have to say they were absolutely excellent. Percussion, bass, banjo (Steve) and two guitars (Dipak and Richard), and a complex lovely sound they are making now was a bit of a revelation.  The Northern Lights a cool place too. Ser...

Another two hermetically sealed days, spent working on the book. I opened the air lock only to slide off to the gym for an extensive work out yesterday, and to sit in the Starbucks and work for a few hours for a change of scene today. Paid the registrar people for the wedding, and Lorraine and I spent a bit of time discussing vows. We are going for traditional ones as I have a strong aversion to the idea of writing them myself due to the busman's holiday aspect of it all. I don't want to be hearing a word and wishing I'd used another one while I'm getting married. I simply want us to get married. Turning on the radio when I got home, I heard the unmistakable voice of my personal tutor when I was at Warwick, Martin Warner. He was talking on the Radio 4 about agony, employing Nelson Mandela as an example. He sounded no different to when he used to teach me and Sophie years ago. Stood there beaming as he spoke, and then wishing I had been a more worthy student of suc...

A spot of variety working with Sophie on some PR material for a Channel 4 series called Top Boy , which had in its first series music by Brian Eno, and when I watched some of it was struck right away by the beautiful camera work and freshness of the acting. I had a thick head this morning, and I spent all day feeling very hot up in the home office. I was overcomplicating things a little, I think, however it was interesting to be working on something entirely different. In the evening collected by Lorriane where we did some emergency shopping, and then went straight away off to The Basketmakers where we met Matt, Ruth, Anton and Irish Tom. Incredibly crowded with lots of non-regulars blocking the streets between The Basketmakers and The Eagle and having the bar staff muttering somewhat as they dropped glasses in the street and pulled pub stools out to sit on. Everyone a bit shattered at the end of this hot week, although it was suprisingly good fun to sluice down yet more cold beer....

Finding it hard to concentrate today. Brooding hypochondriacally on the procedure tomorrow didn't help. Also a man came to discuss gutters, in a disappointingly non-guttural accent.  I got had couple of hours agency work on eye vitamins. Managed to lope off to the gym too, which helped to reduce the twitchiness. Spoke to First Matie, whose day of poorliness meant I had the couple of hours work, and Sophie who is off to Andros' Godmother's funeral in Cyprus. When my lovely Lorraine got home, we watched the brave and noble Chelsea ride their luck to win the Europa cup. To bed early.

Awake early and had to get up. L dozed happily in the bed with the sun streaming through the Velux windows onto the bed. I did some work on the opera project Matt and I are talking about.  Eventually up and had a belly-busting brunch. Off then to make the most of the sunshine. It is a passingly rare thing that we get a bank holiday in the UK when it isn't hosing down. L and I headed inland while the motorway was choked with people coming to Brighton. But even some of the narrow country lanes were jammed with traffic, so we abandoned our plan to head to a specific place and found ourselves stopping by a roadside and plunging into some woods. As we walked on we discovered this was part of St Leonard's forest - the destination of the dragon walk that Anton and I had done for three days along the river Arun a few years ago. At one point we neared a golf tee. The crack of their shots loud in the trees we threaded through silent as chubby elves. A lovely walk accompanied by brigh...

A beautiful sunny day. On with the suit and black tie and up to London to the funeral of Chris Toumazis, Sophie's father. Hideous journey. I had given myself an extra hour to get there just in case, but thanks to two train cancellations and a hefty delay on the third train I still contrived to be late. Got really stressed by this. Eventually leaped out of a taxi outside the Cathedral of the Holy Cross and St Michael buildings five minutes late, and a random man asked me if I wanted the church and pointed to an open door. I burst through this only to discover I was by the side of the the altar and looking at the scene of a crowded church, clouds of incense, and the singing of priests presided over by Archbishop Gregorios of Thyateria and Great Britain, who knew Sophie's dad well.  Slunk self-consciously to the back feeling like an idiot. A Greek Orthodox service, with some beautiful singing from one of the priests, and presided over by the Archbishop. Almost all of it in Gre...

Sad news just before I went to bed on Wednesday, read a text from Sophie saying her father had died. Obviously Sophie and her family are heartbroken, and there is a funeral next week and I shall go to support Sophie and pay my respects to this good man, who emigrated to the UK from Cyprus in his early twenties. Sophie used to take me to the family restaurant in Golders Green, called La Primavera, where he always treated me kindly. He worked hard with long hours, and I hardly ever saw him at home when I visited Sophie. I had a bad headache which got steadily worse. Not helped by the back of my office chair suddenly sheering off comedy style, and jarring my back abominably. Finding it difficult to focus, decided fresh air might help, and took myself to Starbucks where I sipped Earl Grey and worked on the business book for a couple of hours. I like tarrying in Starbucks, using their free wifi and getting a table to yourself where nobody hassles you. I think they owe us all one. But my...

Working on a piece of flash fiction (i.e. a very short story with a hipper name) and one of the characters is a transexual. Blearily woke up this morning, gratefully sipping the tea Lorraine had brought me, and thumbing the Guardian app on my iPhone to read  an extraordinarily offensive rant by inflammatory hack Julie Birchill  about transexual people. The comments section had exploded, and people were saying how they had reported her insults to the police. During the day her article was taken offline, and replaced by an apology from the editor. She certainly has a talent for getting a reaction, and from a selfish point of view, the furore gave me some insights at exactly the right moment. Brighton avoiding snow, but enjoying rain as usual. A day of quiet reflection for me (something that Julie Burchill could have done with) troubled only by the demands of cats. Lorraine out this evening, and I worked on my very short story, and mooched about cheerfully but with variabl...

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...

Three old friends Up to London to meet Sophie at Victoria. We ended up going to a Zizzi restaurant and chatting for hours. Sophie has been under a lot of pressure lately but her business seems to be going well. I thoughtfully added to her to-do list by giving her another CD. Lovely to see her as always. I then popped over to Chiswick to see my friend Sarah, who I'd not seen for a few years and is freelancing as a teacher, editor and various other things. We had a chat in a cafe and generally caught up in a weirdly hot and sunny in Chiswick. Getting out of the station at Turnham Green felt like stepping into a different season. Then back into town where I met Mike Court my old art director in The Salisbury. Really nice to catch up too, as I'd not seen him for well over a year in which time he has separated amicably from his wife and moved into a new flat. He is still playing lots of guitar in bands, and his oldest son is following in his father's footsteps, and is now in a b...

Hail and hearty Buzzing around town today. Beautiful blue skied day after the morning rain stopped, interrupted by hail from a single humongous cloud. Had a long chat with Sophie. Into Resident Records to discuss them taking CDs (unlikely I'd say) got my specs fixed after I squished them carrying in boxes of CDs the other day, then met Dipak for coffee in the Marwood to discuss music in a sagacious fashion. Heard some of the new material he and Richard and working on, and it sounded amazing. Then off to see Di and Adrian for a cup of tea and give them two CDs as Adrian photographed Matt I and the musicians, then off to Simon Scardanelli to give him a couple of samples. Thanks to Adam Bushell the PA is all sorted for the concert. Things are taking shape, now I just hope some folks show up for it. Otherwise we're going to look a bit sheepish. Heard from the French Bloke this evening. Turns out they won the eyeball pitch I worked on with Keith at the beginning of the month. Nice o...

Jersey Up early to finish off some work for the lovely French clients. Then long chats with Richard and Betsy about the book cover. A nice surprise as Sophie emailed to say she has already talked to some folks at BBC radio about the This concert shows, and is now following up. Crikey. Would be cool bananas to get the show on radio. Up the hill to babysit Klaudia and Oskar. They are adorable. Looked at a book about swinging monkeys with Oskar, and then read chapter 13 of a book by Enid Blyton called The Faraway Tree , while having Barney the green dinosaur lovingly squished on my head by Klaudia. Once read to and told to sleep, they kept getting up, and I had to be stern with them to make them stay in bed. Anton came back from London after a couple of days being schmoozed by his agency. We hung out chatting for a while, and he told me that they were going to Jersey for their summer holiday. Jersey!?! It is hard to type about this. I am full of turbulent emotions. Then home talking to...