under another sun

Another Monday Toast and smooth jazz for breakfast with Mum and Mase. Then Mase gave me a lift to Stanmore station. Drizzly morning, but curiously I felt fairly cheery all day, despite the fact I'd dreamed about work the night before. Work itself was fairly reasonable, and managed to get through the day without discord. I had a lunchtime swim, which helped a good deal. Still hobbling but much speedier now. Managed to leave work on time. A spot of middle class nastiness on the Brighton train, with a posh bloke ranting about paying £3,000 a year for the seat and the cases belonging to an American woman opposite hadn't which is why she should move them. The American was rescued however by some of the drinking commuters; a core of people who drink and chat "entertainingly" to one another on the way home. The young guy was told off by another woman who said he should have respect for his elders, an expression not necessarily the most gladdening to the woman's ears. A c...

A city mouse Up early for porridge, toast and coffee with Mum and Mase. A drizzling grey day in London, so Mase kindly drove me to the tube station. From there the journey took about the same time as my trip in from Brighton. Commuting is vile, I thought at one point in some station or other, looking down at a mouse darting about on the track. Only patches and scraps of work to do in the office, but I felt cheerful most of the day, and chatted a bit with the Gnome who has a new iPod, between discussing a football-related brief with two new clients and cat-herding my former art direct to completion of another. In the evening went to Victoria to see Kate and drink a few expensive beers in the Thistle hotel. Sat about in an oasis of candle light and leather chairs and caught up with the gossip, telling Kate about my Japanese adventures, and hearing about her clan's gathering in the forest after Christmas. Still makes me laugh that, to quell fractious children, the adults simply put th...

Woke up this morning... der-der der der The January Blues is almost palpable. Commuters looking particularly grey-faced and etched with ennui this morning. As for me, I'm still cheery but my now-traditional January hobble in full force. So it is back to the bloody quack again tomorrow as the FB thinks I may have ruptured a tendon. Work subdued, and I fiddled with scraps in the office revising other people's work on utilities, and snow leopards, and writing a jovial pitch blog. The Gnome is on holiday for the week. Left the office a little early to ensure I had a good hobbling start. Some defective train on the line meant that it was cancelled (wouldn't have happened in Japan). As I shuffled with the purgatorial mobs on the platform, trying not to stand on the wrong leg, I lurched into a bleak looking Spooner: the January Blues in person. He was looking about him and saying "if you could bottle the pissed offness of people on this platform..." He introduced me to ...