under another sun

Up early and packing, as Lorraine and I hadn't managed that the night before. Then fond farewells to Pat and Maureen, Lorraine, Beth, John and myself made off to Gatwick in the car, as this was cheaper than training it there. At Gatwick Security Lorraine and I met Sam and Jade, and once through security (quite tight I think as there was some suspicious customer arrest at Gatwick that morning). I went to the flying horse for a pint with Lorraine, Sam and Jade. The flight over pleasant and we lucked out with the taxis too, getting one that fit us all in.  We all had nice rooms, Lorraine and I being upgraded and there was fudge and bubbly in each one. Warm welcome from Sally, and Andrew and Ravis and folks at the Barbarie. The lady driver listing the flowers that were coming out on the cliffs for us too as we drove. Into the Barbarie, and sat outside having a snack and a couple of pints. Then, after unpacking, all off to Icart. The was the big hit we wanted it to be, with all the ne...

Up and cooking a Sunday breakfast with Beth for everyone. This consumed, we all crammed into the car and went off shopping with Pat and Maureen and Beth. Maureen using a three-wheeled walker she's going to leave here. Once set, however, she zooms off like a clockwork mouse. Off to Holmbush to Marks & Sparks and other shops. We bought tablecloths and bras etc. (mine was floral, obviously) and ready meals that Pat and Maureen can simply heat up to give Maureen a break.  Lorraine and I also decided to replace our rusted microwave too. Home again, to watch Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs which I don't think I've seen since I was a kid. I have a vague memory of Mum taking me to it in Guernsey and being badly traumatised by the witch in it. She's still pretty scary. John around this evening and we all sat down to a roast and wine. Then getting ready for our flight tomorrow. Lorraine and I discussing packing in the evening, till we simply went to bed not having done ...

Lorraine and Beth off to Ashford for a day's pampering in a spa, then collecting Pat and Maureen and bringing them home. I spent the morning running about in my boxers free as a bird about to go on holiday, and tying up a few loose ends before next week. Went round to see Janet and Ken dropping in to the Real Patisserie for some treats. Ken particularly drawn to the ginger chocolatey ones. Janet showing off a spectacular piece of embroidery she'd just mounted. All gold and dusty blue. Then back to the gym where I had a pretty good workout, and felt quite pleased with myself afterwards and less guilty about the fancies I'd eaten. Home, and Di Turner was kind enough to stop off with a gorgeous print by Adrian of the old pier, a wedding present which we will have mounted. Then Lorraine and Beth returned, fully pampered, with Pat and Maureen. Good to see them looking well and we had an enjoyable evening in with them eating chicken stew.

Working on posters for the show on Pages on my iMac, unfortunately it doesn't do kerning, which my OCD side is balking against, so I may have to redo them Attended to various other bits and pieces, and even -- shock horror -- reading some philosophy for a bit. Lorraine working at home trying to finish everything off today. Sonia scowling because we were all at home. I made a quick scoot to the gym at lunchtime. Off in the afternoon to a pub The Duke of Wellington, near my old house in the Twitten, where I'd secured a room for rehearsals, and a brilliant little space it was, and the people there very friendly. Spent a good couple of hours upstairs rehearsing with Beth and Kitty. Dylan taking time out due to his bereavement. Must be very strange to lose a family member and have the TV do special shows about it, and it be all over all the national media. Despite this I am  feeling cautiously optimistic about our progress, and the more we work on the play the better it seems.

Up early and working on poems, after a terrible night's sleep. Then a spree of cat capturing, Brian legging it off to the garden when he saw the cat carrier, both holding onto the sides with their claws. Lorraine and I took Calliope and Brian in for their yearly check up.  Calliope yowling appallingly in the car, but luckily no spraying this year.  The cats were found in good health apparently said the nice vet at Top Cats, who also removed a tick from Brian. Heard this morning about the death of Ronnie Corbett, the comedian. He is the grandfather of Dylan who is in our play, so obviously it made the news much closer to home. I said hello to Ronnie Corbett a few years ago, and he seemed (from the way he was with people) as nice as he appeared on TV. Home again, I finished off some work then listened to Richard on the JKT show on BBC radio Guernsey. Richard absolutely excellent on it, and he read The Exile , a poem inspired by a Brighton-based exile of his acquaintance, whi...

Up and off to Edgware this morning, working on some poems on the train. Finally close to finishing a poem about time and sunken islands that I'd begun ages ago. I was collected by Mum at Mill Hill station and back home. With Mas we pent the day, eating our own bodyweight in Pizza Express, and later on the way back to the station eating large amounts of meaty things at the Jolly Badger Harvester. Fun to hang out and chat. Mum showed me her photos from Panama, with jungle, and monkeys and vivid coloured houses with corrugated iron roofs. Looked a gorgeous place to visit, blighted only by no-see-ums, which I hadn't realised was a proper name for midges. The Tobster apparently a martyr to these. I also sifted through Mum's trove of photos. Sometimes this can be a sad thing, but actually I really enjoyed it.  Fond farewells with Mum and Mas who dropped me at the station, then a train home, walking up the hill to hear about Lorraine and Beth's trip to Basingstoke. Bel...

Some of the results of the Great Chad Adventure work I'd done dropped today, the launch of the new campaign. You an see some of the work and watch the ad on the Tearfund site here . I hope this succeeds in raising money for the people we met out there, and places like it. But I am not without mixed feelings about this campaign where I spent much time under the Nazgûl's wing. Working off and on this morning, and intermittent contact from Max and the French Bloke who had brought their four bairns down to Brighton.  They scooted around on rollerblades and so on, and I sensibly remained in a cafe working on stuff, then took a long walk down by the sea passing the ghastly iSore 360 and eventually met them on the stones, just as the sun went in and it was again a March day at the seaside. Lovely to catch up with my old friends, and see the children again. They are such a lively, bright and confident bunch of kids. Max produced a bottle of bubbly and we three had a glass each and ...

A storm, Storm Katie, last night, very noisy up in our top bedroom. The storm uprooted trees and flattened fences in Brighton, one tree down about 100 metres from us. Another big one went very close to Janet and Ken. Lorraine and I had a lovely day today. Both of us feeling brighter and more healthy after a long sleep. Up and today's mission was creating a stumpery. Out of bits of stump and ferns. We've not anything in the garden this year, and it was warm enough to work happily. Off to Bolney first where we picked up some stumpy bits from a wind damaged garden centre, near Lorrafne's school. I'm sure we got a cheaper rate on our stumps when we told the man Lorraine was head of the local village school, and the man said head been there as a kid. Then to another garden centre for ferns. When we built it, we were so pleased with our stumpery, we are planning to extend it. It is excellent for the strip of the garden that gets little light. We have also added a wee barrel...

Lorraine and I got up to go to Oskar's confirmation at an unspeakable five o'clock, which felt like four due to the clocks going back in the night too. Enjoyably enough managed to shock and appal Beth and Laura, who were just coming home after a lively night out with their top hats at an angle. Lorraine drove us nearby, and we walked in the hosing rain to St Nicholas' church. Here we found Anton, Anna and the bairns. Lorraine and I sat with Brian and Anne, and David and Stephanie (who I'd not seen for some time, and it was nice to meet again). The service started in the dark, with people finding their way to pews with their phone lights. Klaudia came and sat next to me, and we snickered together at the sight of one of the clergy bumping into the spiral of stairs up to the pulpit as he walked from a lit room in the dark of the church. The service starting in darkness and employing candles and fire to good effect.  The Bishop of Lewes was leading the service, and at o...

Lorraine not well. And, not to be outdone, I felt far from being top form too, so we had a day of reading and listening to music, which I really enjoyed. I started The Story of Music by Howard Goodall, which is a great romp through music, spraying lots of names I'd not heard of in its first couple of chapters. Armed with Spotify of course, you can simply listen to them right away and discovered the sung music of Guillaume Dufay and Josquin de Prez, and am rather pleased I did. Administering to my wife with paracetamol and slipping out to score chicken and ham pie and chocolate, an essential part of the recovery process. Even without nasty bug, Lorraine I think needed a complete day of rest.

Got up and cooked a large breakfast, Lorraine however feeling very poor and went back to bed and slept most of the morning, and laid low all day. Feeling tired too, but there was lots to be done. Rehearsal this afternoon, with Beth. Dylan and Kitty came to our house and we did a thorough read through and a bit of work on the last scene that features them all for a few hours. Good to get to grips with it, and there is a bit of a company feel developing now, which is excellent. So Golden Ticket day today with my favourite God daughter.  I jumped into a cab and headed off to Klaudia's new house, said howdy to Anna and Oskar, and left back into the cab and headed down to Wagamamas to strap on the nosebag and we chatted about a variety of subjects. An assortment of things consumed, along with ice-cream wrapped in coconut rice. Service slow, so gulping these down rapidly, we sped off to the Dome to see Into the Hoods: Remixed . A hiphop dance performance based around a weaving of Ja...

Lorraine's last day of term, which ended with a passion play, a success apparently. Off to Lewes, after a stonking early morning's writing. Met Robin and had a great chat with her in Cafe Nero about the future of Telltale, and just a general catch up. We also went around town dropping of posters for the Telltale reading in Lewes next month, and knocking on doors of people who put posters in their windows. Also bumped into Jeremy Page, editor of the Frogmore Papers, and Catherine Smith. Showing that Lewes is a place where you can't move for writers. Trained back to London Road, and paused for a veggie burger in the Open House and a read of Charles Olsen poems, before going home. A bit later  Dawn collected me, and we drove off to Worthing Cemetery where we met Lorraine and Helen, to attend Jan's funeral. A good ceremony, and her son Matt is a writer and delivered a lovely speech. Her daughter Laura was there too with her partner, as was Jan's elderly mother.  A m...

Up with the sparrows this morning, and made Lorraine breakfast before she went on her way. For me a day of writing deathless poetry was plan A. A rambling sort of poem I started at the beginning of the week fell fully formed into place as an excellent (I think) short poem. Made me think of Keats and his idea that poetry should come as naturally as leaves to a tree or not at all. Things all progressing swimmingly interspersed with stroking and gloating over my new iMac. The cats being suspicious this morning, and then Calliope arrived with a 100% alive mouse. They had a stand off in my study, and when the poor squeaking thing turned to face Calliope, she suddenly lost her nerve for a second. Then the mouse ran around my study and hid. Calliope in hot pursuit crashing through all my precious things, computer wires, guitars etc. like an angry poltergeist. Having rolled my socks up over my trousers I was on Facebook and got advice. Charlotte said to put down a cereal packet and this almo...

Feeling much better than the weekend now. Two plumbers arrived. Who after telling me it was a job of about three hours, soon had found the work done by the previous owner was a botch. The plumber explained why, and it was clearly legitimate. The fix would require lots more work, which cannot be completed today, and they weren't able to get back to it for till after easter. Nevertheless lots of banging and hammering and crashing and prep work to disrupt the morning. Beth back armed with bread and ham, and we had a bite together talking about play things among other bits before she zoomed off again. Spent the day getting my computer sorted out, transferring files and so on. It looks fab and is a joy to use. Then a man came about the carpet, onto which Calliope (still in the dog house) had kicked a cup of hot coffee staining the brand new carpet. Beth had gone into the shop and they said it was to do with the temperature of the liquid. A loquacious carpet cleaning man came around ...

Noticeably improving through the day. Bussed back to Churchill Square this morning to pick up the Microsoft Office I needed for my iMac, and spent much of the day setting it up, and transferring files across to the new one. It is a thing of beauty with a great big screen, which is really useful because I usually work having several things open at once on my desk. Beautiful. Felt a bit tired by lunchtime and took a couple of hours off, eating peas pudding on toast on the Gold and watching Blue Velvet by David Lynch again. It is plenty weird, as they say, but all the Lynch themes are in place.  Interesting how he keeps using the same actors, which included in Blue Velvet Kyle MacLachlan and a very young Laura Dern. He really is like some kind of cottage industry, manufacturing fabulous films meditating on the nature of evil. A relaxed evening in with Lorraine. She is very much looking forward to Thursday, the end of her first term.

Feeling ill. Hot, with a dry rasping cough and wanting to sleep all the time. So rubbish did I feel that I didn't even have the energy to set up my new computer. Instead I spent most of the day nested on the gold sofa, reading books, watching snatches of stuff on my computer and being looked after by Lorraine, who had to do some work in the afternoon.  Watched a half an hour interview from 1975 with John Lennon by whispering Bob Harris. Lennon was an interesting man, an odd mix of prickly and humble and funny. Reading a book of essays by David Foster Wallace, called A supposedly fun thing I'll never do again -- enjoying his essay about David Lynch, which is making me want to watch Lynch again. Before I spent lots of time on the sofa, I spent a good deal of time in bed. This was my view for much of the morning.

Feeling out of sorts, and light headed today. However Lorraine and I went shopping in the car and I bought myself a new desktop computer, and iMac, as my old one is more than six years old and has been having suicidal thoughts, freezing on me and being weird. Amazing how quickly you can walk into an apple shop, ask for a computer and wander out with it in an unusual box, having dropped a four figure sum, all in about five minutes. They certainly are efficient there. Buying an apple product is a joy however. The packaging, the design and so on. Compared to the generations of Dells I specced up myself. In other news I bought some vests and socks. In the evening off in the bus to Hove with Lorraine and Betty to visit Rosie. A cheery evening eating takeaway Thai food, and drinking a few drinks. Rosie's got her place all nice now and really reflecting her personality. It includes a globular feathery light shade hanging down from the middle of the room like a cloud, which (being Rosi...

Lorraine off early in sports gear, as it was Sport Relief day at school. Tackled a few time consuming admin bits that I'd been putting off, as well as tinkered with a couple of poems. Sonia very chatty today, telling me about her mother, who sounds quite a character, a burly ex-army woman who thinks of herself even now as a great beauty, and has a new boyfriend. Which goes to prove, as Sonia says philosophically, it's what you think about yourself that's important. It's hard to disagree. Otherwise a quiet day, even reading in the afternoon, sauntering off to the post office. Saw a large fox in the garden endlessly scratching itself in a flea tormented fashion. Felt rather sorry for it.  Lorraine home late and then we turned right around and drove off to Cuckfield to Jess and Andrew's house. They'd recently returned from a trip to India and Jess, who is an excellent cook, brought back lots of spices with her and cooked up a storm of gorgeous food. Sat in ...

Sent off my Shakespeare poem this morning for Project 154, and it was acknowledged a few hours later. Quite pleased with it. It will be printed opposite sonnet XIX in the anthology. My poem is focused on the person Shakespeare wants to preserve in the verse. It finishes with 'Yet, do thy worst, old Time: despite thy wrong,/My love shall in my verse ever live young.' My poem is in the voice of the lover haunting the sonnet, saying he didn't want to be live forever locked in the poem and is called 'Locked in the Lines', and will be printed between the lines of the Sonnet XIX. Future Kenny scholars will observe that this is a typical Kenny move, the sort of thing that was behind This Concert Will Fall In Love With You . Having sent this off as Cactus the next door cat was taking his morning toilet in our bushes, I then had the best morning's writing of poems that I have had in a very long time. Rather chuffed by all this. Then off to the gym, where I had a slig...

Up early and working at my desk. Still feeling a residue of edginess which is abating slowly. It is one of those rare moments in life when all I want to do is work on poems, and lo! I have time to work on poems. If only life was this simple more often. Started working on the poems I'd started about Chad, but I have such negative feelings (after the recent Nazgûl's wing work episode) that it's not easy. To the gym this afternoon, and quite enjoyed myself on the cross trainer and rowing machine. The last few times I've been listening to podcasts. Actually listening to music is much better. My mind wanders and relaxes, and the beat makes me go at more of a clip. As I was leaving I met someone who'd been at the poetry workshop, in one of those awkward, I now your face but this is the wrong context so I have no idea who you are moments. The second time this month this has happened to me. The noble Kenny visage is easily forgettable it seems. Chatting to Beth this after...