under another sun

Improving today, with an accompanying antsy feeling. Lorriane lagging behind a little. Another blood oxygen test. Both of us in the pink. Chatted to Mum. Anton called too. I finished Virginia Woolf's memoir Sketch of the Past, interesting in all kinds of ways, but an incomplete account of her life of course, but interesting to me because of childhood memories. An actual short walk this afternoon. Down to the sea, which was wild and grey.  Felt a bit sore in the lung department, but otherwise okay. But ran out of gas quite soon.The view down Edinburgh road, which is not far from us. Windy and bracing. 

Woke up at six thirty, with Joy next door dragging a wheeley-bin down by the side of the house. Got up at seven thirty, and after breakfast and various cat businesses, made off to the Seaford Station for a flying visit to the Smoke. On my travels I read a chunk more of 'A sketch of the past' a memoir by Virginia Woolf. Fascinating, and luminous in parts. I find myself making lots of notes in the margin. I have read several of her books and forget just what a brilliant writer she is. She has a way, for example, of inserting the precise name of a plant or tree, that makes a sentence work brilliantly. And at one point used the image of a Cathedral for her childhood. Eventually made it to The Jolly Badger where I met Mum. Had an enjoyable lunch and chat in there. Mum sporting her new sketchers shoes, and we had a conversation, among many others, about premium bonds, as she is an advocate. She said, with some satisfaction, that she made £150 last month.   A slow journey back home, b...

Back to work for Lorraine, and for me the start of two weeks up in Tavistock Square. A horrid night of not sleeping, awful throat and coughing. Felt like death warmed over on the train, where I started listening to my new audiobook Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari. Pausing to score some strepsils, I went into work to discover I’d been teamed up with my old pal Keith. Good to see him, and a relief to know I’ll be working with someone I’ve worked with so often before. He was making me laugh with a story of pursading his partner to let him on a cable car, and then once aboard remembering that he is terrified of them, and clinging to the floor on all fours, and then having to be restrained from leaping out onto a treetop to escape. Then forcing his partner to walk down the mountain afterwards.   The work we’re asked to do is a thorny brief with not much elbow room, but we have time to work it all out. Keith worrying at his ear, which was painful and slightly deaf, and me having lost m...

Late again to work, the train crawling through the fog up to London. For the second day in a row I am sat in the same seat, albeit a drafty one, and the day passed fairly unremarkably. Listening avidly to To the Lighthouse , by Virginia Woolf on the train, and walking around the streets, including Fitzroy Square, in a lunchtime stroll. Quite odd to be mooching about with Juliet Stevenson reading aloud some of most best writing I have ever encountered in my ears. Now I want to buy a physical book so I can pore over individual passages of transcendent beauty and dazzling skill.  I'd only ever read Mrs Dalloway before by Woolf, and that I found brilliant. But I think  To the lighthouse is absolutely magnificent. One of the best things I have ever read. Called by First Matie on the bus home, she was in the Mulberry Bush enjoying a drink after the works festive meal. This pub, opposite IBM is is where Reuben, Kate and I went for our first drink together many years ago. Kate ha...

So finally a smoother day. The train delayed this morning, naturally, but I made it into work only a bit late. Found myself relocated again, sitting next to Ana a designer I started on the same day with. Ana is from Mexico City and has eaten grasshoppers in Oaxaca too like I once did. Otherwise a day when I was briefed to write a newsletter report on an event, which obviously I did not attend. Piecing it together from various bits and pieces. Have been working on Schizophrenia this week, and it is an interesting area. One of the things featured at this event is a pod, into which you sit and have the opportunity to experience life as a schizophrenic, with visions and voices in your head. Lunch with Max, my erstwhile agency mentor and Julie from my old agency too. This was the highlight of my working week. We stole away to a pub restaurant and I ate a pie, chiefly attracted by the vegetables that went with it. The ladies having fish and chips. Great to see Max again, who I'd not ...

Feeling less bizarre and dark as having Lorraine around prevented my steroid-induced mental drifting. Instead did a few practical things, shopping, cleaning up and so on, and lots of talking.Plus a heavy drug-induced sleep in the afternoon, but thanks to the drugsI can now walk properly, with limbs normally aligned and I am not in pain. Finished Mrs Dalloway all too soon, made me hungry to read more of her work. Such a deftly-written book published in 1925, with rather disturbing themes of repressed love madness and the magnetism of death. I doff my imaginary cap to her, and can't believe it has taken me so long to get around to reading any of Virginia Woolf's work. I will have to research what to read next. Enjoyed chatting with Lorraine and shopping. I can even enjoy cleaning up cat litter with Lorraine. We decided not to go to  a party we'd been invited to tonight. Luckily Anton popped around and we had a good chat for a couple of hours, while the TV had the tedious ...

Six steroids pills this morning, which made me prey to dark, drifty ideas and feelings of confusion which gradually wore off as the day progressed. Too fazed to work so I instead listened to Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf, which drifts between its characters interior monologues in a slightly hallucinogenic way. I am certain that it is a masterpiece. It is exceptionally well written. In the evening, after Betty returned home after an exhausting day in the cupcake industry, I caught the number 17  from the bus stop at the end of the village of Henfield to see Dawn where she is staying at her parent's house, prior to buying a flat in the same village. Really picturesque bus ride of about 25 minutes, past wooded parts of the downs, and rabbit dotted fields. Lorraine already there straight from work, and Dawn had cooked a lovely curry followed by a pear and ginger trifle. After, it being a day off the shortest night, we took a short walk to the edge of the fields ...

A square Mum has returned home from hospital this afternoon. I'm very pleased and relieved. Otherwise a dreary Monday up to London, the top of buildings like the gherkin, and the BT office tower grazed by clouds. Reading my paper about the election of the unappetising geek Ed Milliband as leader of the Labour party. Miliband E narrowly beat his older brother Miliband D to the job, which should make for some lively family gatherings. Working hard all day on the blood clot site. Almost done, thank God. Walked up to buy a sandwich with Katie at lunchtime, and then I took a short stroll around Tavistock Square snapping a few shots. And feeling momentary flares of cheer remembering that I am going to take some PK time soon. Home tonight before eight which was fantastic. Below All from Tavistock Square the BT tower, statue of Gandhi, and a peaky neurotic looking Virginia Woolf.

Blue skies and a Puffin A beautiful blue skied day, and hot. Walked home this sunny morning from Lorraine's place and got to work on poems. And then in the afternoon caught the train to Southease where I met Kate at the station with Puffin her new dog, a lurcher. Puffin is a rescue dog, and Kate and her are bonding well. In fact she'll soon be reading that Puffin like a book. (Arf.) It is a playfully nippy thing and zooms at full tilt into the backs of your legs, but apart from that and its perpetually long face, it is a lovely dog. We walked to the nearby village of Rodmell along the banks of the river Ouse. Everywhere unseasonably sunbaked after a short dry spell. We decided to take a short cut across the fields but found our way blocked by fences and hedges. Puffin when on a lead simply sits down and has a look around quite often. Great to walk and talk with Kate ambling around the fields for an hour or two. Eventually we went back to the river and followed its sweep across ...