under another sun

Sleep paralysis again last night. I am sort of conscious but half asleep and unable to move my body before I wake up properly. Disconcerting but the morning fixed everything. After L and I had breakfast we did some gardening. I manfully mowed and strimmed the lawn before it got too hot because we are in the grip of yet another heatwave.  Then after a light lunch, to the supermarket, then an opportunist doze, then I lit the charcoal for the barbecue and cooked a chicken (which turned out to be remarkably succulent, things taste different cooked over charcoal) plus burgers and sausages. Beth, James and baby Enzo with us, and fun just to hang out. Enzo adorable of course. Beth well too. Nice to have a drink and chat with James who allowed himself a couple of ciders. I forgot to take any photos because of having a small brain. In other news all four gulls have left the roof now, and it is nice to be outside without getting dogs' abuse from the pesky things. 

Took my poetry admin by the scruff of its neck. I write my poetry on the Scrivener program, and have done for some time. For various reasons I ended up with duplicate files and occasionally different versions in various folders. By the end of the day I had pretty much de-duplicated, and saved everything into its latest version. It's quite a long process. I how have a giant folder containing poems that have been published, another which is work in progress -- assorted unfinished stuff -- and the current big collection MS I am working on. Feel all clean and in control now. Everything simplified and up to date.  Lorraine off with Beth and Enzo this morning to go to Marmoosh to have some time together, and get Beth out of the house. Then at lunchtime Lorraine brought Pat around and drove Maureen off for a hospital appointment. Beth and Enzo and Pat sat in the living room. Lorraine gave me a snack from Marmoosh I nibbled at during the Understory Conversation, which really was thought pr...

Off today to Hove. We went to Taj to buy Anton-recommended ™  charcoal to use on our barbecue and popped into Waitrose. Then off to an artists open house in Blatchington Road, where Innis was showing some of his prints for the first time. These looked excellent, he is using his own photographs as a basis for the prints and is loving the process. His daughter Eve was also there. We'd not seen her since before Covid. Then home, and we assembled our barbecue (again, an Anton-recommended ™ product) where we downloaded an app, which had instructions. This built, and our barbecue sparked up, we sat in the back garden, down by the glasshouse to get the last of the sun, and barbecued basic things like halloumi, and chicken, sausages and large mushrooms and so on. Popped open a few tinnys too, and all we at outside feeling everything was well with our world.    Below Innis and some of his prints, and Lorraine watching the charcoal burning before we put it in the barbecue.

I am fat and unfit. We are going on a diet and I went to the gym today. I downloaded an app and loaded my weight onto it, and set my target. It makes a nice graph. Keen to get my next reading and start the downward  trend. Scooting about in town with Lorraine. I bought myself a watch, as I had been watchless for two or three months having dropped my watch face down in the gym and all the numbers falling off it. I broke most of my own rules about watches, because it has an olive green face. At least it doesn't have Roman numerals, but it only has 12, and then lines. Also it has a date and three mini dials. It looks quite retro though, in a good way. I have checked my wrist fruitlessly for weeks, and now I don't have to, which is nice. Home and barbecued some sausages and chicken. I did this not without personal crises as the wind was swirling and coming from every direction at once. Eventually and eccentrically I had to deploy a large golfing umbrella to allow the charcoal b...