under another sun

No tiler still, but spent some of the day trying to get answers from plumbers. Filled with impotent frustration. Apparently the tiler will not answer the plumber's calls etc. However in the afternoon I took a long walk of exploration, found myself walking, and getting lost in, amazing woodland around and about Stanmer House. There are extensive woods and fields there and loads of walking to be done. However, I forgot my specs so couldn't read google maps, so had to do a bit of doubling back on myself. An amazing walk however, although I post no pictures of being in woods, as my woodland photos always just look like lots of trees. Went to a cafe in Stanmer village, and glugged tea and lemonade and a scone. The long walk helped me feel much happier, and my step counter app said I'd walked ten miles today. Below are photos taken just opposite Hollingbury Hillfort on the opposite side. The sky was really threatening, but there was no rain. There is something in the I Ching,...

Up just in in time for breakfast, after sending off a fast note or two about the pitch next week. The full Guernsey Breakfast exemplary this morning, and set us up nicely for the journey into town where we bought two trident tickets to Herm, and mooched about shopping for sunglasses for me and shorts for Lorraine for the day had turned hot and glorious. Over in the trident sitting up top. Found ourselves near Jenny Kendall Tobias who was talking authoritatively to a woman and her daughter from Brighton about the islands. Chatted to Jenny for a while, who was on holiday with her son camping in Herm for a few days. An enormous cruise liner like a futuristic floating slab on the water mid way. Lorraine had never been to Herm, and I think last time I was there, I went with Dave my Grandfather so it must have been in the 90s. Thankfully it was almost unchanged. Although we were reliably informed by a woman in a shop in St Peter Port that the Mermaid has gone posh, and that there were st...

Hard to get out of bed this morning. First Matie, having been turfed from her hotel four-poster bed, came around and we set off to Southease where Kate had lived for a while. Hung about chatting in this beautiful little village, and nosing in the church and sitting on a bench by the village green hearing rooks chuckle and caw like a bevvy of cider drinkers in the trees, and watching the wind ripple a distant corn field. We encountered a slow worm that had recently dropped its tail on a path. Its defense was simply not to move until we were safely away. We walked around the quiet village, with its lovely old lichened buildings and crossed the little bridge over the river where the wind was surprisingly cold. After this mini-outing, we drove into Brighton for a roast lunch and a pint at the Signalman, before we had fond farewells with First Matie at the station. Lorraine and I then met Rosie in the Battle of Trafalgar, and sat in the back garden in the re-emerged sun. We crossed the ...