under another sun

Got out of the wrong side of the bed this morning, and felt strangely grumpy all day, despite having lots of nice things to do. I phoned mum, and then got dressed. Lorraine and I walked down to Cote for lunch.  Lucky Lorraine had to endure a bout of me moaning about my lack of success in poetry and writing and so on. The usual litany of January stuff from me. However my lovely wife had helped me sort my head out by the time we reached the restaurant. Problem is when I have a large moan I feel much better very quickly, but make everyone else feel horrid. Nevertheless we met Catherine and Tanya, and Guy and Tim. Interesting chats with everyone, including Tanya, who is a big fan of visual art. Was approached by old friend and colleague Spooner too as I ate. Then Lorraine and I grabbed a cab, so I could get home in time to be picked up by Robin to go to the T.S.Eliot award readings. A tricky journey as part of the motorway was closed. However we managed to get to the South Bank i...

Both Lorraine and I feeling sluggish still. However up and a kipper based breakfast and off to see Janet and Ken for morning coffee. Also collected some bags of fabric that Janet is kindly giving to Lorraine's school. We also discussed the new house Janet and Ken are moving into, in Hove. It looks good, a roomy ground floor apartment. Felt quite excited for Janet, and she'll have some garden too. Then back home, dropping a book off with Rosie, who is in the next street to where Janet lives, and driving past Janet and Ken's soon to be new home. A Sunday lunch, then Lorraine drove me off to Brighton station, and I trained up to Blackfriars, without incident and attended the T.S.Eliot readings at the RFH. Southbank looking rather nice as I walked along, a stretch of river that is very familiar to me having worked at IBM's building there for a few years. Met Robin, Charlotte and Jess. The first phase of these readings is always the same, gathering in the long bar befo...

Up late, after sitting in bed with Lorraine and working on a letter she needs to send out to parents. Then up and my lovely wife cooked a sunday roast chicken for lunch. Then I was collected by Robin and we drove up to the South Bank this afternoon to attend the TS Eliot awards shortlist reading at the South Bank - which is the biggest poetry reading on the year's calendar and features readings from the cream of the crop of last year's poetry publications. Robin's car on its last legs, and about to be replaced by one big enough to take Nick's keyboard, a heavy organ. The motorway blocked by an accident so it took us quite a while to get there. But we'd set out early, so there was plenty of time. A brilliant way to get a snapshot of what's happening in poetry. Most interesting of the eight finalists to me were Claudia Rankine and Sarah Howe. Claudia read a long poem about identity, saying something like we should consider ourselves architects of the personal ...

Lorraine still very upset about the news about Helen's son Freddie . As a consequence we tried to keep busy. Shopping for curtains and going to Sainsburys and so on. Lorraine fixed up a curtain over the front door, where something of a draft passes through. We were also able to go into the dungeon today, after all the spraying, and I opened the one dungeon window to air it out. Off this afternoon to go up to London to see the TS Eliot award readings , as Robin had a spare ticket. Met Robin and Clare Best in the bar as I arrived. A big of a nightmare journey there and back due to bus replacement services. But fascinating to be at this reading which showcased the work of ten poets -- a useful snapshot of what is considered to be good in British Poetry at the moment. Robin had secured a seat in the middle of row D so we had a brilliant seat. I liked all the poets, some more than others obviously. Particularly liked Pascale Petit's work but think the poised Arundhathi Subramania...