under another sun

Appalling night's sleep. Woke up late but received an email from my old friend Michael Stone Richards  who is now a professor of critical theory and literature in the US. Saying he just saw a vision of Maude Gonne (the famous beauty WB Yeats had loved for years) and it had reminded him of me.  A characteristically enigmatic correspondence from MSR that made me smile and miss him. Rushing about early with the idea of going to Tunbridge Wells to meet new clients, but events conspired against this. As the ominous crow flaps, it is only in the next county of Kent, but if you try to get there by public transport you are looking at a hefty two hours each way. Sonia here this lunchtime. Explaining that this was the year of the snake and she and her partner were both monkeys, which in a strong Romanian accent was rather funny. Being a pig, I am not over fond of Chinese horoscopes. Sonia off to bask in Egypt for a holiday next week. Sent off my application for the blogger in resi...

Doing plenty of writing of a variety of kinds for most of the day. Filed free of the desk manacles at lunchtime for a walk in the park. No snow, but frosty ground and the ponds icy, and the fish deep under the ice in the winter sunlight. In the evening off to babysit Oskar and Klaudia, had a nice chat with Anna before she went out. Went in to chat to Oskar, who is transforming into a proper boy now. When Anton returned, he made pizzas for us and talked feverishly about his new craze: synthesizers and synthesizer music. He has downloaded synthesizers onto his iPad and has a keyboard to plug in, on this set up he is learning chords, listening to tutorials about the structure of synthesized sounds and about attack, sustain and decay, sound envelopes and so on. While we ate admirable pizzas we also listened to Kraftwerk , music for which Anton has found a sudden and powerful affection. It is a long time since I have seen Anton so be-crazed. After listening to excerpts from The Examined...