under another sun

Flying into beauty Off to Guernsey this morning. Lorraine had her hair done and then we got an early train off to Gatwick. These days I am fairly relaxed about the short flight to the Gem of the Sea. Today however, I kept remembering a scene from a recent dream where I was looking out of the window and the plane was heading vertically for the ground. Gin and tonic seemed to help, as did Lorraine who has a generally steadying influence. Arrived safely, although I did have my head slammed by a taxi hatchback, the driver being momentarily distracted as we were loading cases. Within minutes, however, I was feeling incredibly happy, sitting in the Barbarie sensibly supping a glass of Rocquette cider with a ham sandwich side dish a little after 1pm, and chatting to Jane by phone. Lorraine and I then sloped off to Icart as is traditional. The sun was emerging and the cliffs were devastatingly beautiful. Even from the plane you could see the yellow gorse, and once at Icart it zinged out again...

A Guernsey Double launch day Up feeling wretched about the contents page, but there was little time for brooding. Before long Richard and I were climbing into his van and driving off to BBC Guernsey. Jenny Kendall-Tobias was standing in for Jim Cathcart the usual presenter (whose show R and I had been on a while before) and we had a great interview with her. Really liked her. To my surprise she read three poems out from the book herself, and was decidedly moved by them. Of mine she read Clameur , which is a simple exile's poem from the perspective of a Londoner about Guernsey which almost brought her to tears. She was also tearing up reading Richard's poem about Rufus, who is a poorly dog at the moment. Off for a rather-pleased-with-ourselves cup of coffee afterwards, especially as Jenny asked us back to the studio for Tuesday afternoon. Spoke to Mum who had been listening on live stream, who told us we did well. Mums are good things to have. Home, to rearrange my return flight...