under another sun

A vegetarian Scottish breakfast this morning, with a circle of vegetarian haggis. Shared a table with Leslie and Derek, and there was a round of applause when Ron and Carolyn entered.  After fond farewells, Lorraine and I hopped into the taxi at ten past ten, and were driven back by a cheery driver to Inverness station. I nipped away to buy some sandwiches and we caught the train to Edinburgh on this three-hour journey, through beautiful Highland country, we discovered that we had screwed up the timing, and would miss the London train at Edinburgh by a few minutes.  Lorraine managed to rebook on a slightly later train but a dash of unwanted stress. Managed to get on the Kings Cross train at Edinburgh without incident, and sat in windowless seats by the luggage, for the long journey down. Changed at St Pancras, East Croydon and Brighton. Home not long before ten, fairly worn out. Brian fine, and we were happy and grateful to be home, having travelled the best part of the length...

Up and getting packed, then Jade collected us and took us to Leuchars station. Fond farewells, and Lorraine spoke to Sam on the phone. A long journey home, but fairly easy till Lewes, where the Seaford train didn't wait for the London commuters to get to the platform, then there were numpties trespassing on the line, so trains were being cancelled and so on. I read more of How to think like a poet  as Robin and I are going to interview its author Dai George on Thursday. We also ate cold macaroni pies on the train which Sam had bought the day before.  Home -- a blessed relief -- and beans on toast and a sit on the gold sofa with cats.

A decent night's sleep in the Tower Hotel in St Catherine's dock. Got up for breakfast but there was some mix up in the pass keys we had been given, but eventually we met up with others. Fiona and Paul, Moira and Jim. Nice relaxed breakfast. Jim an ecology professor and a very interesting guy. A good breakfast there. I'd enjoyed meeting the London nurses and some of their husbands lots.  I was keen to get back home to Seaford, and left Lorraine to hang out with her old pals, enjoying a day of bus and river trips and a drink at lunchtime. I hurried past the Tower of London, and decided to tube to Victoria. There I caught the Eastbourne train with five seconds to spare. Had been rushing for it as if it were a matter of life or death, which was very  weird and I still don't understand why it suddenly became so important. Home, and extremely happy to be dozing with cats and reading. Lorraine home early evening, and sinking happily into the sofa after lots of walking today. ...

A quick podcast email and a few bits first thing, before I readied myself head north.  Pat and Maureen here. But I went up to Elstree, to meet Mum and Mas in The Waggon and 'orses on Watling Street. A slow journey with lots of changes. Seaford to Lewes, Lewes to East Croydon, East Croydon to St Pancras, St Pancras to Elstree and then a pleasant stroll from Elstree. The platform at Elstree had grit and salt on it, and it was noticeably colder than Seaford was when I set out.  Mum and Mas happily installed in the best seat by the fire when I arrived at 12:25. Enjoyable time with them, warmed by the fire and sipping a decent pint of Guinness and telling them all my news. Mum and Mas are really well known there. The chef who calls them mummy and daddy appeared, and I shook his hand as his 'stepbrother' and thanked him for being so nice to them. He made a nice chicken soup for Mason, which was nicer than anything on the menu. I had a sip and it was spicy with nutmeg, and rather ...

Bit of a strange day. Woke up at five full of doom, better when I woke up again. Lorraine dropped me at the station, the train was a bit delayed but otherwise I simply read and enjoyed my Selected poems of Robert Lowell, which I have not done for years. Enjoying his poems much more these days, although his attitude to black people is nasty. It is all part of my attempt to refresh and increase my knowledge of US poetry. Have a great hunger for reading poems at present. Scottish fisherman on the train, just as we approached Victoria carping loudly on his phone about Brexit fisheries negotiations and planning a protest. Into work, and feeling oddly nervy this morning. I was given a job to do for the nice CD here. Found myself working with a good Spanish art director called Lidya on some concepts -- but also had to biff some work from my lovely French clients, which I don't like doing. A ten minute walk at lunchtime, which did wonders for my mood and perspective. I had a positive a...

Still feeling cheerful. Helped by not having to work on the train first thing. End of week-ish and a bit braindead. Bought tea from man on the The Daily Grind stand, and shunned my sweetener as more news this morning that artificial sweeteners in soft drinks increase your risk of dementia and stroke. Listened to the football podcast. Brighton a.k.a. The Seagulls, are about to be promoted to the premier league, which sets up the potential for loyalty dividing Chelsea V Brighton football matches. A gleam of various ideas of things to write, as I walked from St Pancras to the office.  Noticing things again. Keith and I were given quite a bit to do. After takeaway sushi lunch, there was the usual agency Friday afternoon crisis, with work that needed doing urgently at 5pm. We pulled it off, and I still managed to catch the 18:08 from St Pancras. Another drunk on the way home, in a very smart suit in his early 40s, who sat down heavily on me then, having muttered in apology, lolled ...

Up to the smoke again. Working on the Defenders of Guernsey on the way up. But seemed to have sprung from the wrong side of bed this morning, and felt vile and tetchy all day. Not that the day's events helped, with clarity about what Jules and I should be working on hard to come by. Late to leave work. Missed the train by a second, having to arrest my gallop on board due to crowd of small children suddenly underfoot. Galled by this and prompted to some John Cleese style ranting on the platform. Galled too, after waiting tetchily for the next train, by the woman I made room for to sit next to me in the crowded train, who held my glove disgustedly between her manicured fingernails. Read the Primo Levi book on the way home. An interesting book, as much for its form as its content. Home and Lorraine had been painting parts of the living room white, a great improvement, as the wall was a species of cream with patches of dirty white.  Lorraine is on holiday and I feel a little bad ab...

Off to the smoke listening to a podcast about Anton Chekov. I think I saw The Seagull once, but that must have been decades ago. At lunchtime I snuck off to Skoob books and bought a secondhand book containing Chekov's five best-known plays as it is time to get better acquainted. I like it down there. I like squeezing past my book loving brethren beneath toppling towers of dusty books. I hate the idea of bookshops dying and being replaced by Amazon's soulless cyber monopoly. A busy but fairly cheerful day at work. Late escaping due to typical last minute agency faffing, and needing to rework copy and sit with Andrea the designer to complete a job to a tight deadline. Free at last... But prevented from getting to the platform at St Pancras as there were no trains south due to a Biblical sounding trespass incident at Cricklewood. Gallingly arrived on the platform in time to watch a cheery Brighton train zooming south. The train I eventually caught stopped at every conceivabl...

Tiresome train delays. I'd had such easy, although long, journeys, lately that I'd forgotten the ghastliness when trains go wrong, and the way from Brighton to London is doomed. Ended up getting in a cab, with a very cheery cabbie, who made me suddenly feel a lot better about everything.  Work perfectly fine, working on a brochure to do with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and being photographed holding an Einstein mask. Felt rather tired though, I am not so good at bouncing back from lively weekends any more. In the evening mooched across to Goodge Street where I met Bob, to tardily celebrate his birthday.  Long and wide-ranging discussions in a couple of pubs, and Pizza Express, where Bob managed to obtain a pizza twice the size of mine for almost the same money. I can talk to Bob about things I can only tell Bob, or perhaps more accurately, only Bob would be interested in. Talking about dreams and archetypes, and the nature of the imagination, among more general go...

Ghastly night's sleep, and when I did fall asleep I woke up in states of anxiety. Off to work in the murky morning, missing my train by around ten seconds. Saw a deer bold by the trackside from the next train north and had an overwhelming desire to get off the train and follow it into the woods. Listening to the Claire Tomalin's Dickens autobiography. Really enjoying this book. Increasing admiration for how much sheer bloody work Dickens did. Lorraine made me some filled baps to take to work, which unfortunately I ate before 11 in the morning. The day dragged a bit, but a nice chat with the FB about a telecaster he is about to buy before close of play. He has got wildly enthusiastic about guitars in the last six months or so, he is approaching his music methodically learning chords and scales and so on. Train home delayed and crawling southbound. The homeward journey taking almost two and a half hours. Rather good to be home despite it being late. Lorraine and I had a muc...

Annoying bastards Off this morning to London. On the train with Bob for most of the journey as I headed off to Tavistock Square again as the amends needed to the website were too difficult to explain over the telephone. But nice to see folks at the agency. Worked all day interrupted only by a short walk with First Matie to grab some sushi (or M&S's version of shushi) to eat at the desk. Some young attention-seeking soft looking guy was playing music intrusively on the packed train home from his laptop. People took it fairly good humouredly and I put in my hearphones and was listening to an audiobook and successfully blocked him out. However the man opposite me, a testosterone fuelled tetchy type in his thirties snatched his laptop off him and made as if to throw it out of the window, but instead ended up sitting on it as the pair exchanged threats and grappled very close to me. Absurdity with an undercurrent of violence. Still surprised I did not intervene which is my usual wo...

Through the snowy squares A bad night's sleep, and the alarm going off far too early. Rows of cancellations and delays on the Station's information board. Eventually a train to Victoria arrived and I was able to travel in without being incredibly late. Every person in the train coughing and sneezing, but nice looking out at the white world from the train, and then later walking through the chiaroscuro of snowy London squares. However I was too late and cold to take any photos. A victim of my own speed, I managed to crack the concept I'd been brought in to work on (with a nice Swede called Sven) almost instantly. I am happy to trade a day's pay for not having to commute to London through the snow just before Christmas. After work walked down to Covent Garden, to meet the French clients for a glass of champagne in their small office, as Katharina who I have been dealing with over the last few months is returning to Germany. Alexandra good value as ever, discussing busine...

Train time Back in the train limbo. Working on poems going up to London, looking afresh at my old Guernsey work for the project I am doing with Richard next year. Fortunately there are several improvements that leap out at me right away. The stuff I've done about Guernsey is surprisingly coherent over the years. Into the agency and working with Sean again, getting blood from a stone on the neuropathic pain brief. Nothing much to report, although we had a few laughs as we struggled with it. The train home, obsessionally playing the brick breaker game on my mobile phone, and listening to a disgusting audio book by Chuck Palahniuk called Haunted. First story featured a boy masturbating underwater, having his small intestines sucked out by the pool pump. I have rarely felt so revolted by anything. I can't decided if it was depraved or brilliant.

Julia on the threshold Work frustrating all day, with an increasingly crushing headache. Discovered at five o'clock that we had been pursuing all the wrong avenues and had to stay late to rework them. Finally left work to meet Bob at his sister Julia Monteiro's opening of her art exhibition at the Waterloo Gallery, near the Old Vic Theatre. Just before leaving heard that Sprinkles had been in a car crash but was fortunately unharmed. Arrived at the gallery in time to help with the tidying up. I liked Julia's work a lot, and in a Niles and Frazier Crane moment with Bob, decided it had an intriguingly liminal quality: that it was about thresholds. See for yourself with some of the work on Julia Monteiro's site here. Her star is in the ascendant and has more exhibitions coming up. It's great to see. Nice to see Julia. I'd not seen her for about nine years, since Bob got married, and before she started painting. We lurched into a nearby Italian restaurant and...

Clockwise The train thing is getting beyond a joke. Up at a quarter to six this morning to be in good time to meet my colleagues at Euston station. Got on a train at Edgware , which instantly broke down before it had left the station. After a wait, got on another tube train reasoning I still had an hour to do the 30 minute journey in. After a few stops the entire Northern Line ground to a halt. A 30 minute wait at Brent Cross station meant I missed my connection with my three colleagues to go up to Manchester for the pitch. Much frenzy and grinding of teeth on my part. However Hannah texted me to say that if I caught the next train to Manchester, I could meet them them before our onward train left. I would have four minutes in Manchester Piccadilly to find them. My train was delayed outside Manchester but I just managed to find them and leap onto the connecting train which itself was delayed by two minutes. A surge of relief. But it wasn't over. We arrived to our destination stati...