Moon and dragon Bleary day, after a terrible night's sleep. Once I did fall asleep I was woken inside ten minutes by shouting from outside. Missed my normal train by a few seconds, and sat on the next one which was strangely empty, writing a few lines of a poem about the waxing moon which I sent to Sarah who appreciates such things. Not in a good frame of mind today at work, feeling disconnected and it that it is all meaningless. I have to nip this in the bud as I DO need to be paid. However at least today was another day eating pure stuff, and not drinking. My social life has been getting out of control lately. Anton round in the evening with two large Ordnance Survey maps and print-outs from the Internet. We sat about drinking sparkling mineral water and discussing his ideas for a Dragon quest into East Sussex. Felt a bit like a scene from The Hobbit. This county does have some amazing history. The proposed route includes a fossil beach, abandoned airfields, an open prison, Roman
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Fear and Trembling Work is not buttering my parsnips at the moment. Took two briefs today, one of which is a healthcare one and potentially quite exciting. Sadly I have have undergone a successful enthusiasm bypass, but I expect enthusiasm's close cousin Fear will kick in soon and make me pull my finger out. Slightly disturbing is the fact that the office is trembling. This is due to massive machines tearing up the concrete on the building site next door. I enquired about whether this was normal and was told it wasn't. Still, there are conversations to be had. The Gnome showed me two new clever jazz chords on the guitar; Trace and I went for a walk at lunchtime by the cold river talking about relationships and psychological insights, and passed a winter tree full of parakeets. I still find this quite surreal even though they have become quite common now. Later, after sitting in another briefing, I went for a quick walk and gossip with the French Bloke just for a breath of air.
Back on the boards Well... My centre stage moment came quickly. I took myself down to the Sanctuary Cafe in Hove for an open mic night of poetry and song... And read my first poems at a real venue for about 13 years. Despite being rusty and strangely nervous, what I read was well enough received. And I was delighted to have broken through a mental barrier. I associated performing poetry (which I did for years, often several times a week) with my friend Tim who died of AIDS, and also with being continually skint. What I found however, was that I really enjoyed myself. The poetry was great, and very well performed with one or two excellent poems cropping up. The influence of rap is filtering through, since I went away, and there was one guy doing poetry improvised on the spot - a bit like the freestyling of rappers. Veered into logorrhoea sometimes but was still interesting. The evening was recorded, and the odd poem may be broadcast on a new local radio. There was a genuinely wonderful
Sunday people Early start to the morning. A headache which I blame Brian for, and some pottering about. Then Anna and Brian called for me and overcame my feeble resistance and took me off to Bills for breakfast. Rather pepped up by a fresh rhubarb, ginger and apple juice followed by a nice herbstrewn and healthy full breakfast. Hurried home to be there for my home delivery of groceries ordered off the Internet. This was clearly big and clever idea, and I don't really understand why I've not done it before. A very pleasant guy arrived exactly as arranged, and it saved me having to lug lots of heavy things like bottled water, and cans and so on up the hill and liberate my precious weekend time from the supermarket. Spoke to Sarah twice today. Lots of laughing, she is a very funny person. I enjoyed hearing about her struggles with a lizard in Tampa, and learning about nail technicians and lots of other stuff I've never thought about before. Including photo of a catapult affai
Life is a bouncy castle Anna, Brian and I drove off to a nearby church hall this morning to set up for Klaudia's birthday party. The hall was a good old fashioned one, and for a minute I jumped up and stood centre stage, and remembered how much I like it there. Busyness followed. There were tables and chairs to set up, toys to be strewn about the place, balloons to hang and a bouncy castle to be inflated. Then the next couple of hours blurred by with a couple of dozen kids, (they are hard to count as they dart about in a kind of Brownian motion) and parents. Enjoyed seeing the kids bouncing around in the castle, and taking lots of photos and chatting with the mums and dads, many of whom I now know thanks to Anna and Anton. They are, by and large, a really pleasant bunch of people. But it all went wrong for a bit as a duff batch of balloons began to spontaneously burst. This absolutely traumatised Klaudia to the point where she burst into tears and screamed in horror if taken back i
Friday in the company of ladies A cheery Friday. I am still quite quiet at work, and was tempted out for lunch by Max the Mentor. Went to the Distillers which is fast becoming the agency pub since reopening and once inside we chatted to all and sundry. Max took me into a local cobblers, and did some shoe business. She told me she was wearing a pair of Jimmy Choo shoes which she said had cost a fortune. They were nice greeny multicoloured things and, admiring them, I felt I had stepped accidentally into an episode of Sex in the City as one of the gay best friends. After work I met Mex my ex-wife, in Victoria and had a nice time catching up. Her fame is growing and she will be on TV again soon. And her website been nominated for the Bloggies . All richly deserved. She seems to be keeping incredibly busy, and it was good to see her. During the day I was delighted to get a call from the very nice indeed Sarah to thank me for flowers I had sent her, as I had missed her recent birthday. She
The itchy and scratchy show Another swim today, which I'm loving. My skin is incredibly dry and itchy at the moment though, which means I can't go too often. It also necessitates the faintly homoerotic business of standing about rubbing moisturisers and unguents into myself in the often quite crowded changing room. Curiously Blogging seems to be flavour of the month at the moment, and I have been asked to write another one for work soon. In the evening met Paul, who I'd not seen for about six months. He is now creative director of his own starter agency, and was wearing his pinstripe suit and two tone shoes and generally looking gangsterish. He also had a mysterious Romanian woman called Diana in tow, who was having a difficult life crisis. She was interested that I wrote poetry, as she did too, and she had also studied philosophy. Paul had offered her a roof over her head while she gets things sorted out - typical of him as he is always helping people. They came to meet m
A white morning Woke up to snow, which of course fell silently. It made me remember the opening phrase from the Coleridge poem Frost at Midnight "The Frost performs its secret ministry". It made the train ride seem like travelling through a different country. And the countryside looked lovely. I tried unsuccessfully to take some photos through the window. Arriving in London the tube had been plunged into disarray after the inch or so of snow. It never used to be like that when I was a lad... etc. There were no tubes from Victoria. Eventually one turned up and the morning walk through the graveyard was beautiful. Work was fine too, and I received a bonus which was a nice surprise. Slipped out to lunch with Max the Mentor and ate a steak and ale pie, and had a fast post Christmas catch up. She said she got her daughter a karaoke machine but ended up singing on it herself all Christmas morning while her family complained about the groaning. In the evening I avioded the worst of
Klaudia is three Work uneventful today. I went for a swim, the first of the year and now far enough into January for the new year's resolution people to have thinned out. I am fat at the moment, and it was good to start to do some exercise again especially as limping has precluded much walking lately. Swimming instantly made me feel a bit less antsy, and appreciative of life in general, and Sarah in Florida in particular. Her friendship is a surprising gift. There's nothing like churning up and down for 40 minutes to get things in their proper order. Left work slightly early as there was little to be done and, more importantly, it was Baby Klaudia's third birthday. She was still up late playing with her new doll's house, and also fairy princess Barbies with a horse and carriage when I arrived. Poor little mite has a scuffed nose where she fell over on the seafront at the weekend but otherwise seemed very cheerful. I'm amazed at how quickly those three years have gon
The Dove and The Dark Place Heard about Alice Coltrane's death today. She was an amazing woman who died on Jan 12th and her album Journey in Satchidananda has to be one of my top ten records of all time (despite being impossible to pronounce). She is a Jazz musician with a spiritual dimension and an Eastern flavour having lived in India for some time, and has some amazing moments. Went to work. And I didn't like it. Sat in a soul-sapping meeting and then went out at lunchtime for a walk with the French Bloke along the river. It was a blessed relief. Sat in The Dove by the open fire and had a laugh and a beer before returning to The Dark Place. Work seems an intolerable burden, even though nothing bad is happening, and I am full of a yearning for freedom and a feeling of dissatisfaction with my lack of achievement. Part of me welcomes this, however, and I intend to use it as a spur. Back home to my thankfully warm house, as the temperature is plummeting now to normal January l
Happyness and the Mock Turtle Trace down from London for the afternoon. A nice day chatting over wide-ranging subjects over a noodly lunch at Wagamamas. Trace wanted to see The Pursuit of Happyness . Will Smith's character was fighting against poverty, losing his home and partner and so on while working as an unpaid intern for a stockbroker's company while being an only parent for his son. It was a gruelling and grainily shot journey. "Happyness" is deliberately misspelled. A quick hobble by the sea to watch Trace smoke a cigarette and blow the cobwebs away. Noticed the sliver of the new moon, with Venus gleaming above it in the clear sky. It made me feel very cheerful as I'd seen the last two new moons through train windows and, through no fault of my own, am superstitious about such things. It is going to be a cool month. Repaired then to The Mock Turtle. I love it in there and Trace and I had a pot of tea, and I ate a scone, and she had a buck rarebit, and we d
An elbow in the underpass Journey to work a comedy of errors: train doors jamming so that the train couldn't set off at Brighton, the train inching along due to a land slip, tube trains creeping at wormspeed etc. etc. I don't even get irritable any more. I just get philosophical. I was grateful to escape and walk through the graveyard in a bright and blustery morning. After being at the office for a couple of hours, the new head of design said he'd buy all the creatives a beer. Cue the creative department stampeding to the pub. Any desire I might have had for doing work evaporated quickly after, and having returned to work I skipped out late in the afternoon to meet the French Bloke for cheery beer. Absolutely nothing to complain about, but inexplicably feeling tetchy, especially after an altercation with barging teenagers in Hammersmith underpass as I started my journey home, at whom I roared colourfully and with fluency. Not my finest hour. Pleased to be home and buying a
Stormy weather Back to work. A dark, wet morning, which turned into an extremely windy one, with 77 mile an hour winds at Heathrow, and 10 people being killed across the country. On the train listening to Tolkien to blot out a feeling of being quite dismally down. But this passed quite quickly once I'd reached work. Got an email from Sarah saying Florida was gripped by a London fog, while we had one of their hurricanes. Between meetings, the Gnome and I spent the day looking down at the wind blowing so hard that spray was picked up from the river surface and whipped about. Trees were blown down nearby and roads were closed off. From our vantage point, the Gnome and me watched some new fencing being blown down on the building site nearby. I took a walk outside for a while and it was really buffeting, and almost difficult sometimes to stay on your feet. Chatted with the FB who had flown in from New York this morning. He said the last fifteen minutes of the flight was a bit lively. Wi
The return of Orc Foot Two weeks of limping heavily took their toll and my ankle painfully seized up overnight and is very hard to walk on. I lay in bed with my ankle throbbing, the rain pouring down outside, and my boiler making unspeakable groans and I decided that today would be an excellent day to drag myself off to a knacker's yard and simply get it all over with. Instead as work was quiet, and I had a day off owed me from last year, I loped like an orc in the rain down to the surgery, and took the day off. The friendly Irish locum doctor insisted again that I sound Irish too. I don't but he is a nice guy. Anyway he gave me some fast-acting horse pills, and by evening I could walk without much pain. Half a dozen futile calls to plumbers. But otherwise I very much enjoyed being at home, although I can't seem to write anything. Instead I enjoyed drawing while listening to my Lord of the Rings audio book. And I cooked the splendid homemade butternut, bacon, leek and lenti
The Ooigawa line Below more pictures from a day in the mountains 2 Jan in Japan. Japan's highest altitude railway. Mr Suzuki watches members of the party like a sheepdog having dropped us at the station. Small, rather Harry Potterish trains but very good fun despite the rather sheer drops, Mr Suzuki racing the train James Bond style through the mountains to wait for us at every station; an enormous mountain dam.
A city mouse Up early for porridge, toast and coffee with Mum and Mase. A drizzling grey day in London, so Mase kindly drove me to the tube station. From there the journey took about the same time as my trip in from Brighton. Commuting is vile, I thought at one point in some station or other, looking down at a mouse darting about on the track. Only patches and scraps of work to do in the office, but I felt cheerful most of the day, and chatted a bit with the Gnome who has a new iPod, between discussing a football-related brief with two new clients and cat-herding my former art direct to completion of another. In the evening went to Victoria to see Kate and drink a few expensive beers in the Thistle hotel. Sat about in an oasis of candle light and leather chairs and caught up with the gossip, telling Kate about my Japanese adventures, and hearing about her clan's gathering in the forest after Christmas. Still makes me laugh that, to quell fractious children, the adults simply put th
Of boilers and soap nuts Boiler kicked in with a nightmarish scream at 6:30, making me spring out of bed in horror, or hooorrrrr as the American film trailers say. I have to face the fact that the boiler is doomed, and at work I was soon onto Anton to recommend someone. He did, and I explained to the plumber that my boiler was screaming like a horse. Mystifyingly he couldn't pinpoint the problem from that verbal description, and will come around later in the week hopefully. Work quite fun. The Gnome back from his long holiday which was nice as there was a bit of a draft coming from where he sits. In the evening off to Edgware to see Mum and Mase. Had a glass of wine, and Mum explained the virtues of soap nuts, which are new to me. These are actual nutshells that you put inside a cotton bag in your washing machine. They produce an organic soapy substance when in warm water, and this cleans your clothes. She has two small sacks of them. Then off to find a restaurant. Ended up in the
Home is where the heart is Spring clean of the mind and home continues: I bought a small filing cabinet and files and now have all my bills and tiresome correspondence filed away. This is almost bordering on the organised. Also did a spot more shopping and saw an excellent bargain on a shop demonstration global knife, which brings my complement up to three which, according to Romy, is all the knives a gentleman needs. I then rounded up my arsenal of rubbish knives, about 12 of them. Not sure how to dispose of these, perhaps fling them at felons in the twitten. Loved being at home today. I put a bean jar in the oven and loaded it with herbs, and I could smell it cooking allday. I also sat in front of my computer and tried to write but instead got sucked into listening to a dramatisation of Germinal by Zola on R4. Really good. But I know that there is a lot of stuff in the pipeline. To my surprise I was also contacted through IM by Mary Jane. She says that Jack is now a vegetarian, and
A tidy mind Decided at the last minute against a day of Buddhism with Sophie, and instead chose to get to grips with my home which had plummeted into a shambolic mess. Fortunately Sophie was fine about it, and we'll meet up in the next week or so. A lovely chat. Having known each other since we were 19 it really feels like we are brother and sister sometimes. She may be coming down to Brighton with the family again soon, which will be fun. So a day of laundry, washing up, washing kitchen and bathroom floors. And now I can almost walk properly again. To celebrate this excellent news, I went shopping: buying food and shirts, energy-efficient lightbulbs (following mass lightbulb suicide pact over the last few days) and special bathroom cleaning spray that kills mould, and a backup disk drive so that if my laptop is stolen again or blows up I haven't lost all my work. Stupidly I began shopping for this last thing without consulting Anton. What was I thinking? A quick chat with him
A Friday cyberdate First week done with, and generally unscathed despite being appalled by the very notion of work. Not a bad day feeling quite subdued after laughing it up last night. One thing I did discover was the identity of the person who had been making silent calls to me off and on for a while. A very long way from impressed with this. Friday at work ended with champagne and Ralphie giving a moving goodbye speech. But I ended the day with that weird and wonderful modern phenomenon: a cyberdate. I ate pizza while Sarah drank a glass of wine in Florida, and we swapped jokes and laughed till late. A good deal better than most of the meatspace ones I have been on, that's for sure.
A passing breeze A good night's sleep and a soporific journey into work. Dawdling vaguely at the ticket barriers in Victoria station I was barged so violently by the small woman following me that I popped out the other side like a cork. This made me feel rather disgruntled. Due to leg malfunction (which is slowly improving) I spent lunchtime at my desk listening to my iPod. I have loaded so many of my CDs onto it, that occasionally it plays something I don't remember. Today it played a song by Rachmaninoff called A Passing Breeze (Op.34, No.4) and even though I have no idea what the words mean it absolutely transfixed me. I had bought a CD and listened to it once or twice, and filed it in the "must listen to this improving work again sometime" section. However I repeated this song about five or six times and was spellbound. A singer, I don't even know who, and a accompanying piano and something which sounds to me like meditation on impermanence. I looked up Rachm
More rupture than rapture Woke up at 5 am this morning and was unable to get back to sleep. Got up early and then went to see the doctor. Turns out that I have ruptured the soleus muscle in my calf. It should however recover with time. But it smarts, and is galling. Then hobbled off to work, but found myself in a tetchy mood. At the moment I keep being asked to redo work I have already done, and it is the most tedious nothing jobs that are coming back. For some reason it is making me feel furious or like Michaelangelo being asked to paint a toilet wall, and then being told that it needs another coat. Was phoned and told that the Polish guy who burgled my house was given a seven month prison sentence. It's almost as if they expect you to be whooping with delight when they phone you and tell you this. But I must be soft as I can't help feeling sorry for him, even though he caused me a huge amount of trouble. But because his sentence is custodial, I won't get any criminal comp
Woke up this morning... der-der der der The January Blues is almost palpable. Commuters looking particularly grey-faced and etched with ennui this morning. As for me, I'm still cheery but my now-traditional January hobble in full force. So it is back to the bloody quack again tomorrow as the FB thinks I may have ruptured a tendon. Work subdued, and I fiddled with scraps in the office revising other people's work on utilities, and snow leopards, and writing a jovial pitch blog. The Gnome is on holiday for the week. Left the office a little early to ensure I had a good hobbling start. Some defective train on the line meant that it was cancelled (wouldn't have happened in Japan). As I shuffled with the purgatorial mobs on the platform, trying not to stand on the wrong leg, I lurched into a bleak looking Spooner: the January Blues in person. He was looking about him and saying "if you could bottle the pissed offness of people on this platform..." He introduced me to
All's well that ends up in the Eddy Woke in the middle of the night with an oddly throbbing head. But this abated after drugs. Into work listening to Lord of the Rings still. It goes on forever as an audiobook. And arriving at the office people unreasonably seemed to expect me to do some work, rather than simply swivel about on my chair talking airily about Japan. Nevertheless much of the day was spent this way, or working Japan into the conversation if by some oversight the person I was talking to had neglected to ask me about it. I definitely feel as if the walls have been pushed back after my holiday. Feeling full of possibilities and optimism. Although I did have a sense of absurdity on the slow train ride up to London. There must be another way. Absconded with Trace and the French Bloke to the nearby Thai restaurant for a very cheerful and chatty lunch, which help extend the holiday feeling. Much blaring about Japan over some cheeky beer and listening their news too. Over the
Happiness is an oversized teabag Jetlag, a cold, and dodgy leg kept me indoors all weekend. Dislocated physically, but feel very cheerful. Really nice to be at home and to spend time listening to the radio, generally cleaning and tidying, uploading photos from Japan and watching football on TV. Not to mention eating odd things at odd times with my bizarre eating irons. Had a nice long chat to mum, and otherwise kept the lowest of profiles apart from speaking at length to my lovely new cyberfriend Sarah in Tampa. Before I left Japan Hiroko gave me a few green tea onsen baths. I tried one and it contained a large teabag which made the water go quite green. Bobbed about in this for some time, deeply grateful that Mr Suzuki wasn't squeezed in next to me waving his arms around.
Chilled over Siberia An epic journey. Up at 5:30am to shower and complete packing, followed by a hearty breakfast cooked by Hiroko. Then Toby, Romy and I were driven sleepily to Shizuoka shinkansen station by Hiroko. The moon was big and still full and Mount Fuji was clear and pink in the dawn. It was if Japan was making sure it would be remembered. I was sorry to say goodbye to Hiroko in Shizuoka. She has been wonderfully hospitable and I've got on with her extremely well. Despite the train being busy we managed to get seats next to each other, and bulleted into Tokyo, with Toby and me taking photos of Mt Fuji from the window. At Tokyo Romy guided us through the huge mazy station and put me on the airport train. Toby kindly hefting my case about as my back and leg were still somewhat rubbish. Fond farewells to Toby and Romy. Not sure which country we'll all meet up again in, but that all adds to the fun. Then an hour's ride to the airport. I had checked in online and my
A ferry to Izu Managed to tweak my back this morning, as the hobbling had put it out of sync. This meant that the others had a sort of Frankenstein's Igor thing loping about with them during the day. We drove off to the coast to catch a ferry to the Izu Peninsular. Hiroko, who can't swim and doesn't like water wailing Oh God this is scary! as we sped over the ramp into the car ferry. But the sea was very calm in the faintly misty morning, and I felt more relaxed than I could remember for as we sat about drinking coffee. The Izu peninsular is very beautiful and has a distinctly different feel to the area Hiroko lives in. It has big bones - a mountainous interior with a craggy coastline that reminded me of Guernsey but on a much larger scale. And I really like all the rocks and small islands that complicate the shoreline. Our first stop was at a coffee house owned by a sculptor and his wife who Hiroko knew. The place had spectacular views down the cliff to the sea, and to Fu
Shrine and Temple After yesterday's exertions, a very low key day today. We did however go for a drive off to a nearby Shinto shrine, and a Buddhist temple. The temple was particularly lovely, set at the head of a wooded valley. It is the one that Hiroko goes to when she feels the need to go to the temple. Hobbling a bit due to my leg, but managed to take some photos. In the evening we watched a programme about the Ancient Egyptians, which was quite enjoyable even in Japanese. Below the shrine, Hiroko translates another fortune, part of the Temple garden, and the face of the statue of a monk.
Mr Suzuki takes us into the mountains After making a dozen or so calls in the last two days to confirm details, Mr Suzuki came to collect us today in his luxurious car. He proudly showed us the onboard sat nav and the computer which he can bark instructions at. He only has to say "it's cold" and the car starts to warm itself up for him. It also has cameras which show you outside the car, especially useful when reverse parking. The computer screen predicts where your car will go too. Knowing nothing about cars I found this impressive. A long drive calling initially at Mr Suzuki`s house. He is the president of a successful plastic modelling kit company. Pressed for space it seems even quite wealthy Japanese live in modest spaces. We met his wife again briefly. There is some ambiguity in Mr S`s life between his "classmate" who he clearly adores, and his wife who apparently rules him with a rod of iron. He is about 60 and is very kind and unbelievably eager to pleas
Sunrise in the land of the rising sun All of us up at 5:30 and soon drinking coffee and watching a national TV programme about the sun rising over Japan. After seven we piled into Hiroko's car with Haneko, the comedy-faced shitzu, and Miranda the spaniel, andset off for the nearby beach. Lots of people, some standing about a big impromptu-looking bonfire, others imbibing shots of sake against the bitter pre-dawn cold. Further along the beach were a group of drummers that I couldn`t see, but could certainly hear. There were about 15 surfers in the sea with small boards and wetsuits - even though the sea was quite calm. It was freezing enough with a coat on, in fact Hiroko retired back to the car to watch the dawn through the windscreen, God alone knows what it must have been like with hands and head in the sea. Toby Romy and I walked along a short pier out into the sea and waited for the sun. There was a low bank of cloud on the horizon and so a glimpse of the sun was slightly delay