under another sun

Beth and Enzo popping in this morning for a coffee and a chuckle. I went to the door, and again the little chap wriggled happily and held his arms out to me. It's impossible not to have your heart melted by this sort of thing. Beth and Enzo both in good spirits, so a lovely breakfast. A bit later, Lorraine and I set off for beautiful little village of Firle, just the other side of Lewes, to meet Dawn and Paul in The Ram for Sunday roast. They all had veggie stuff and no alcohol drink, I felt a bit like Oliver Reed having pork, and a pint of cold lager. Lovely to see Dawn of course, and I enjoyed chatting with Paul. They told us about a talk about Gaza they'd attended the night before, which had moved them lots. Also about Dawn's grandson Raffy now eight weeks old. Both he and Ellie and Russ doing well.   Having strapped on the nosebags, we went for a short walk. Paul and I were talking about all kinds of stuff, from generational trauma, to Paul telling me about the startlin...

Slept soundly and sprang up fairly early, and made off back to Lewes again. Excellently, we also picked up Beth and baby Enzo en route. James had a Very Important cycle race to watch. We met Innis and Rosie in a car park in Lewes, then walked along the river Ouse for a while. Innis pretty busy these days with his bird retrieval work, not to mention the coast guarding he is doing, often needing hours in the middle of the night. Rosie's job, which she loved, is coming to an end, and she is wondering how to deploy the skills she has learned.  Great to have Beth with us, and Enzo looking like the best dressed baby in the world. Nice to catch up with Innis and Rosie, and Pippi zooming about happily. Then we drove off to The Ram at Firle and had a happy couple of hours, eating a good Sunday lunch, and tucking away a few tasty 'Inclination' beers from Burning Sky, a brewery just down the lane.  Fond farewells with them all.  Thence home, and a bit of a doze. I then dragged mysel...

For the second time this week, woke up at about seven, having migraine spangles. And as before I fell asleep, and woke up later feeling okay.  This is happening quite often at the moment. I don't know what's triggering it.  Pottering about the house this morning, and Lorraine and screwing a bathroom cabinet to the wall, and wiring in the plug inside it. Lorraine, who had thought she had turned off the electricity, receiving a nasty zap, but was okay luckily.  Off to The Ram in the village of Firle to meet Beth and James to celebrate Beth's birthday tomorrow. Really nice Sunday roast, I had pork, Beth and Lorraine shared lamb, and James had beef. I opted for a bit of cheese, but the others had nice desserts. Heavily overcast sky, and the pub seemed cozily dark as we ate, with little fairy lights and fires.  Talking excitedly about their Seaford move. They are in that hideous waiting bit, where nothing seems to happen. They both are taking tomorrow off, and will spend ...

Falling upwards Kate and Matty down on a day trip to Brighton, to take a bracing walk followed by some cheeky beers. We were going to do a walk that I'd done once Anton. Due to complicated train scenarios, however, we decided to go instead to do another walk which Matt and his family do regularly. The walk started well with competitive photography, some advanced hat wearing from Matty and myself, and poppies splashing the fields with colour, not to mention Guernsey cows pulling at the grass. As you know, I collect phobias like other people do stamps. My occasional horror of wide open spaces, I think started when I was four years old and living in Guernsey. I went through a phase convinced that I was about to fall up into the sky, and would hold onto adults or hedgerows to prevent this. Standing on top of high, grassy and treeless hills surrounded by the yawning horror of the existential nothingness affects me even today. Our hilltop route was essentially a Peter Kenny worst case sc...