under another sun

Sophie and a CSR Off up to the Smoke today. First to Highgate to see Sophie. We snuck off for lunch in a pizza place, where Andros joined us, full of information about anaesthetics. Sophie talking about a new insight that Buddhism has taught her: that we know we can influence our cast of mind for the good, because we can influence it negatively with such ease. Then back to Sophie's office. She is pitching for new business on Friday and we brainstormed with her assistant Suzie about this for a couple of hours before I left them to it. I tubed down to the South Bank to go to the Poetry Library. Bizarrely, however, there was the Marks & Sparks AGM taking up the whole of the Royal Festival Hall. I felt vaguely affronted by this: selling off the cultural crown jewels for a spot of corporate lucre. But of course if it helps keep it all going, that's fair enough. I was told the Poetry Library was open but I had to go to the artist entrance. Rude security guards told me to wait to ...

Doggets with Bob Woke up wrong headed today. Everything seems impossible to achieve. Despite this I have sent Matthew the updated version of the words for our concert today, and went to the gym for a really mild mannered workout. Pushed off up to London this afternoon to meet Bob. I was early and lurked in the Royal Festival Hall looking out at the river and the pretty lights, and the Millennium Wheel. Increasingly feeling like a tourist these days in London, despite having worked for a couple of years in the IBM building almost next door. Met Bob in the Auberge at Waterloo. He looking sprightly and we had a few beers, there in the Mulberry Bush, and Doggets which Mad Dog is inextricably drawn to. We didn't play pool but sat on stools watching a young couple playing as we discussed wide-ranging, profound issues. The boyfriend had those fashionable trousers that hang off the bum, and when he leant across the table to take a shot, we got a view of genuinely unpleasant hairiness, whi...