under another sun

So a busy Sunday. Off to Seaford Station on the icy pavements, but the trains were delayed or cancelled due to ice on the third rail and there was no foreseeable train for at least half an hour. This country going to the dogs etc. So we got a refund on our tickets, and decided to drive instead. As soon as we left the station and were almost home there was the galling sight of a train arriving.  Nevertheless a pleasant drive to the University of Sussex where we met Paul and Dawn to see a fantastic French string quartet, The Quatuor Arod, The concert had been relocated from the usual concert hall to the Meeting House, a modern church building with effective stained glass in simple blocks of colour embedded in the encircling concrete of the round building. A lovely setting, although perishingly cold and everyone sat with their coats on, except for the four young guys in the quartet.  First they played Mendelssohn's Op.44 No.1 with sparking competence, but the piece itself left me...

Up early and working for a while, before sloping off into town, where I bought shoe laces, dust masks for scraping walls, and went to the bank. After this I had a quick coffee in the Marwood cafe. It was regrettably full of posturing arty types doing some kind of quick and grubby photoshoot, as if it were the most important thing in the world. Bah, I thought, Old fogeyishly. Then off to meet Catherine at The Bath Arms for lunch. A pint of beer, some grub and a long chat. Catherine is so intelligent and sane, I always feel braced and perked up by her company, and that I can say almost anything to her. I also spoke to Rosie about our forthcoming birthdays, which as they are only a day apart we are going to have a mutual drink in a pub with our many mutual chums on Saturday night. Still no real energy. I start off the day full of hope and cheer, but by mid afternoon feel tied, and achey, which makes me feel glum. It feels like there are million things to do, but I just have no oomph. ...

Lorraine and I decided to get up fairly early (for us at the weekend) and go into town for breakfast. We had breakfast at Bills, and drank healthy freshly squeezed things. I had a nicely warming apple, carrot and ginger. Then we did a spot of shopping and lurked about by the sea. The afternoon was spent going to see a film, Rogue One, the Star Wars spin off at the Kommedia.  Bumped into Tanya there. This film quite entertaining and as Starwarsy as you could want, but not something that will make you think about anything once you've left the cinema. Lorraine popped off to the loo afterwards, and I found myself amid half a dozen lesbians who made me laugh talking about two of the heroes who were killed in it: "I was sad when the blind one was killed. Yeah, and his boyfriend." Everyone dies in it. That's a plot spoiler. Lorraine shocked me on the way home, by quoting dialogue from the original Star Wars film, that this spin off emerged from. Apparently she watched it m...

A Thanksgiving Started the day learning that my poem A sparrow at 30,000 feet will be in the first issue of a new magazine from Guernsey called Written In. The editors have also kept hold of other poems to use them in subsequent issues, so this is all good. It is important to me to have work appear in Guernsey. Also I recieved a note from Joan who has been talking to Dick about my megalithic find, (see previous entry) and thinks it is a stone age scraper used to scrape hair and fat off hides. He was familiar with this instrument because he just read a book dealing with the prehistoric natives of Ontario. I have sent my jpegs off to a local museum to see if they make anything of it, or simply tell me it is a piece of stone. Then up to Edgware for Mason's tradional late Thanksgiving supper. A cheerful gathering there, with Tanya and Robert, Ben and Poppy (over from Guernsey) and Diane who is looking remarkably good after her recent radiotherapy treatment. Nice to fork into some turk...

Frogs legs and fanatics Off to Mill Hill to be met by Mum and Mase and driven straight up to St Albans for a Thai lunch with Tanya and Robert. The four of them are planning to go to Madeira soon. Robert and Mase talking about businessy things, and Mum Tanya and I talking more broadly. Rats was one subject, but a word which Tanya refused to say aloud, and instead mouthed each time mysteriously (and slightly randomly in terms of phonetics). As we chomped on chicken satay, Tanya told us more about her childhood in the Philippines: about how frogs being seized in heavy rain, and everyone would breakfast on their boiled legs the next morning. But sadly, it no longer rains like that anymore, presumably due to climate change. After the meal, the owner of the restaurant gave Tanya and Mum a pomegranate each, and was very friendly - telling Mum that she was still very pretty and asking how could she have a son like that . Mum pleased with this, but I wasn't quite so sure. Then a bit of cold...