under another sun

Worked at home, then packed up and went to the gym for another workout. From there to the ideologically unsound Starbucks where I consumed a cinnamon swirl and a large cup of tea, and had another good session. I can't understand exactly why I work well in Starbucks when I have a perfectly good study. I can only put it down to a simple change of perspective, and perhaps that I had been exercising in the gym. Really making great strides with the book. In the afternoon contacted by the folks in Tavistock Square, to discover that I am wanted for freelance up in London next week. Only omnipotent God knows what the story will be on Monday. But the prospect of a bit of coffer top up definitely pleasing. Lorraine out with various ladies, and Anton, called around for me. He was only partially recovered from a lively night taken out by the agency he employs, which involved several shots called Jägerbombs. I had a few drinks as Anton supped glasses of water and the occasional half, in Th...

Mind maps and a mouse Chernobyl Downloaded an abridged version of The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying and listened to it on the train. John Cleese reading it, as well as Sogyal Rinpoche the author, and others. I noticed John Cleese at the three day retreat I attended with Sophie, which was led by Sogyal Rinpoche himself. Listening to it is surprisingly cheering, and like a burst of sanity as you scrabble ratlike from the train platforms at Victoria down into the tunnels of the tube. Arriving at London I picked up a free Metro which had a false front and back page covered in stories about Watchmen . The movie is out shortly in the UK. I read the graphic novel last year while I was in Greece, and found Alan Moore's story intriguing. The advertising for the movie covering the Metro (usually only worth reading for the excellent translated Norwegian cartoon strip Nemi ) was very well done though, and true to the style of the original graphic novel. Interestingly Moore's name was...

The Queen of Higgat Sprang out of the airnest at a little after eight for breakfast with Mum and Mase. After the first cup of coffee Mase talking at length about films, including the one about "the gorilla guy" aka King Kong, which he rates (I do too). He also lent me a DVD of V for Vendetta, which is a film, I'd never seen. After breakfast Mum and I pored over her sketch of Skelton Yawngrave, which I want to use it in the forthcoming Skelton Yawngrave website, as part of my world domination tactic. She also read the first couple of chapters of the first draft, as it describes what Skelton looks like. Pleased to hear her laughing a bit when she read it. Although in fairness she is not 10. Then off down the Northern line to see Sophie in Highgate (which today she was pronouncing Higgat ). I collected her from her house, where she works with her assistant doing important PR stuff. Then we set off for lunch in a cafe restaurant in Queens Wood, the park behind her home, and h...

A click A note from Richard Fleming saying that there was to be a new anthology of Guernsey poetry, which I will be in. Very happy about this - it has been a good year for my work in the island. Up to see Mum and Mase today. Avidly reading V for Vendetta on the train, and the time passed with me absorbed by the paranoid, post-apocalyptic gloom of the story. Happily the headache caused by a seized up neck, disappeared with a "click" as I turned abruptly to look out of the window. Mum once cracked her neck on a tube while her mouth was open, amplifying the sound alarmingly. Lurked about with Mum and Mase, chatting lots this afternoon and evening. Mum looking really well, and we three spent some time looking at her paintings, a few of which had been expertly framed by her former dealer. Everyone off to bed early, and I finished V for Vendetta, before clambering into the airnest.

England prevails This afternoon, took advantage of a non-raining day to go for a walk by the sea, then lurked happily in a second hand bookshop. Also popped into Dave's Comics to buy V for Vendetta which I ended up reading avidly this evening. Graphic novels are for grown ups too. I never really believed it when people said this before. This one is very bleak and is set in a post nuclear war England, where a Nazi-like Fascist government has taken over the remains of the society. An anarchist weirdo dressed as Guy Fawkes starts attacking the government, whose say "England Prevails" to one another in a "Heil Hitler"ish way. Strangely compelling. The graphic novel form is great because you can show images which are not immediately connected with the words - so you can get a film like voice over effect. This dissonance then creates something in between, a third meaning, which gives the graphic novel format a richness. I've always liked strip cartoons and have ...