under another sun

Three eyed fish and leopardskin heads At last, a few hours sleep! Who knows what it was... maybe the back cracker... maybe my mother who prodded it mysteriously while she was here. Ran around doing stuff today. Prepared and sent off a poetry MS, took the cat wee duvet off to the cleaners, swam, and bought trainers for the gym. The first pair I was drawn to cost £150, which made my bowls shrivel in horror, so I opted for a sensible pair of Reeboks. All the other customers in JD Sports looked like they smoked 50 fags a day and lived off jammy dodgers. In the gym I met an ex colleague called Nicoletta and her opera singing husband. Rather awkward meeting ex colleagues in sumoesque mode poolside. Then went for a swim which was twinging my back so after 20 minutes I stopped and squatted in the in the skin shrivelling chemical soup of the Jacuzzi, noticing the Simpson-style three eyed fish. I have made an appointment for Monday evening when the instructor is going to show me how to use the ...

Oskar in a skeleton shirt Low profile day again today, having felt fairly subdued over this holiday for no good reason at all. However, having gone into an excellent chocolate store in Lewes the other day, I went up the hill to visit Anton and Anna and take some little Easter baskets plus some little chocolate animals (green frogs, white mice and brown cats and dogs) to Klaudia and Oskar. Chatted with Anna lots, as some snow fell outside. Anton not well, however, and lying on the sofa stricken with self-diagnosed shingles. Anna said that she'd looked it up on the Internet and it had advised taking paracetamol and to shut up, which we laughed at, Anton rather less so. They are flying off to Australia next weekend for Christianne's wedding, so it would be much better if it wasn't shingles. Read a couple of stories to Klaudia, one of which I liked. It was called Selfish Sophie about a girl who wasn't very good at sharing, and was following the rule I've learned recentl...

On the up Celebrated a great morning's work, by taking a two hour walk this afternoon, heading east across the city and clambered uphill till I reached the top of it. It is surprisingly high in the Hanover area, especially near the racecourse. Then ended up at Whitehawk, which I'd never walked through and probably won't bother again. Sort of reminded me a little of the Chalkhill estate in Wembley, where my old pal Carl lived, which is now mostly pulled down. Lots of the kids that went to my school lived there and it was quite a rough place. I wrote an unsuccessful SF novel in Carl's parents garage in Chalkhill, being bitten by fleas from the rug, and watching the odd flood of dog urine come down the wall, supplied by one of the several puppies from upstairs. Nobody can say I haven't paid my dues. Whitehawk has an edgy atmosphere about it, although in the sun it looked pleasant enough and there were few people about, apart from a man with a unpleasant dog. I walked p...

This is England Stayed at Lorraine's last night, and was woken by a cat placing its paw on my forearm. Disorientated, I opened my eyes in the middle of a dream, and saw a face about six inches from mine, and in the half-light I mistook it for a small and intense child. This, for some reason, scared the bejasus out of me. I haven't been as alarmed by a cat since Paddy the Ghost Cat pattered into my bedroom. Did a morning's work as God's own copywriter for the religious charity I'd been doing a bit for through my old agency. Thanks to feline intervention I found I was up exceedingly early so also got quite a bit done on my Skeleton story, have written over 20,000 words of it now, which is er, cracking along. Another swim, the fourth of the week, left me feeling pretty shattered and still aghast at how fat and out of condition I am. Rented a movie about skinheads in the 80s called This is England which I thought was a really good, excellently acted, a great script, an...

Hanging wit my boneys...

Corpse monologue #1 Got a camera that hooks into your computer and it has a program that lets you turn into a skeleton. Too good to resist.