under another sun

So, so long Beast from the East. It slipped off northwards. Noticeably milder when I got up and fed the cats and made Lorraine and I tea and breakfast. I had a decent night's sleep too, which was splendid, and so I felt more robust than yesterday. The snow in the back garden, crisscrossed with fox prints and cat prints melted during the day. We stayed in bed till late, with one of the heaters breathing the smell of scorched dust into the air. Lorraine has constructed a big chart stuck onto the fridge called 'We can do it', plotting the year's weightloss. The plan is to drop half a kilo a week. Weighed ourselves again this morning, and we are doing well. I have lost about three and a half kilos in the last two weeks, quite remarkable considering that this last week, I did little exercise other than Olympic freestyle coughing. In the afternoon off to a Nissan car dealership and we bought a Qashqai. Nissan scorn the letter 'u' obviously. A car salesman who was ...

Another foul night's sleep. Went to bed at 10 and lay there coughing continually for three hours. Eventually slept in exhausted snatches between coughing fits. Feeling grumpy this morning, a mood not improved by our boiler not working. We think it is because the condensation pipe is frozen, but as this is impossible to reach, even with ladders, without first dissembling our wee garden shed, so we simply deployed our two plug in heaters till it is warm enough for the heating to work again. Gah, Catch 22. A chat with the postman as I was leaving on the house and I commented on his shorts (I was wearing three jumpers, hat, gloves, coat etc.) He said you just get used to wearing them, and you soon warm up doing your round. He also said that it had been colder yesterday, than he could ever remember in his 30 years as a postie. It was minus seven when he arrived in the wee hours for work. Bussed to Evolution Arts, Ben urged me to speed up if I am going to get my piece finished. Nice ...

Started some freelance work, working for Germans on stuff for a new product launch all day.  More lined up for next week, which is good as there are some bare boards showing at the bottom of the Kenny coffers after the trips to Guernsey and Paxos. Lorraine working companionably next to me. Spoke to Pat Norrie, for whom I was doing this work, who called me from the airport on his way to Malaysia, and Hong Kong for a large holiday. Sounds exciting. While I was waiting for final feedback on the copy watching bits of Stewart Lee, who is currently my favourite comedian. See this for example. A plumber came to fix the boiler problem, which took him some hours. Otherwise little excitement till Lorraine started cooking and sent me out to find some turmeric. Weirdly this proved impossible to find but led me into several shops I don't normally go into, including one staffed by a slightly wild eyed man who after I asked him about turmeric, which he had none of, he came up to me and said, ...

Blowing a gasket A different kind of boring today. To be precise, a workman drilling and grinding into my wall at a completely unreasonable 6:25am. Stormed out in my dressing gown, which flapped nastily, to roar at him. On returning to my house he began drilling again. Moved quickly into furious mode, and, returning, left him in no doubt that he was in personal danger. Things quietened down, and at least it was an early start to the day. Onto the packed train and sat opposite a man who coughed on me all the way to Victoria, had fantasies of stoppering his mouth with a 15thC mace, or a fetishist's rubber bung, or a cactus, or a live ferret etc. Walking through the graveyard I decided to reboot the day. And did so successfully. An enjoyable day in the agency, and working hard. Surprisingly they asked to film me talking about a charity for a mood video - a long shot of me and Ed talking over concepts today, and an interview tomorrow. Managed too, to have a chat with the right person i...