under another sun

Back from a weekend spent with my old school pal Paddy in a village called Medbourne in Leicestershire. Had several drinks in Medbourne's solitary pub on Saturday and walked home under the stars -- objects not seen in London -- in the fresh air. The village was largely built of the local yellow stone due to the iron in it, or so Paddy said. Sunday morning, with some degree of hangover, we went for a long walk into the country. This initially gave me a spinny head and then made me feel oxygenated and strangely alive. We then played bass and guitar in his kitchen before going to his next door neighbour's for Sunday lunch. Also saw Lost in Translation on Friday. Tokyo was the star, although Bill Murray ran it a close second.

Enjoyable night last night. Went to a private view at the Tom Halford Gallery to see Peter Stowell's exhibition -- a survivor's art Part One '...Before...'. He is actually my mother's half brother, and I'd not seen him for 20 years. I also met his brother Alex and his wife Pivey, plus two cousins I'd never met called Nina and Sarah, who I liked a lot. Complicated families.... Peter's art was interesting. Really good titles to his paintings. I particularly enjoyed "Playful ghosts of my former girlfriends" as a title, or "Visions of myself and Glenys escaping from the Green Gate pub and finding places of safety". And there were series of odd mechanical looking drawings. One particularly I liked was of a called "Pen and Ink mystery". Which had labels like a scientific diagram but they were written in an invented language. The idea of labelling is supposed to make things clearer -- and I enjoyed the fact these labels only a

Time to start this again in ernest. Happy to see Christmas and the New Year go by. Now I feel that I am starting afresh. Found out on the first day back at work that we'd won a pitch, so had something to celebrate straight off. And yesterday Maddog called to say that he'd just become a father to Amelia -- 10lbs 4oz. Hopefully will be wetting the baby's head with him in the next day or so. Meanwhile will go down to the seaside to stay with Anton and Anna this weekend, who is about to become a father shortly too -- the baby's code name is Loki (norse god of mischief) to whom I will be a godfather. Looking forward to waddling about in a Brandoesque way shortly.