under another sun

Thank God, I managed to sleep a bit last night. Only a few real coughing fits last night. Feeling brighter as a consequence. Lorraine able to get to school today today too. I caught the bus into town, and picked up a prescription. The pharmacist at Ross told me there's a lot of the cough from hell about. Although it was cold because of the Beast from the East, the sun had some warmth in it. Got a bus back to Fiveways and walked home on the snowy streets just happy to be out and part of the community again. Worked on some poems for a hour or so while my brains were still working. All I want to do at the moment is read and write poems.   Heard from my French clients, after another prompt from me. They don't hate me, and one of the first ideas I sent them they liked. With nothing else to fret about, I spent the rest of the day able to rest and recover. Turns out the damage done to Lorraine's car by the person who slid into her will cost more to repair than the car is wor...

Another exhausting night of coughing and feeling positively ill again. The world white this morning, as the 'beast from the east' had delivered a thin blanket of snow in Brighton for breakfast. More like the Lapdog from Lapland. Lorraine up early to go to school, but due to the snow and ice, and the steep camber on the road meant she was unable to escape and had to abandon her car touching a neighbours. She left a note on it, and a bit later, another neighbour showed up having run into the back of her. Everyone involved teachers and no harm done. Later she was able to drive off the car, and park it nearby. I got up early and finished a certain amount of the French work, sent them what I had (several concepts) and told them I was too ill to continue. I heard nothing from them afterwards so have no idea how this went down, fretting a bit about this. But spent the rest of the day dozing or lying on the gold sofa and really happy Lorraine was at home, and looking after me nicely....

Another horrid night of dry coughing. Feeling fairly rubbish, I got to work on my brief from Paris, which I struggled with all day, but feeling completely unable to think properly, and generally quite ill. Looked up symptoms of Australian Flu, chief symptom a hacking dry cough and exhaustion and decided this is what I have despite my flu jab, I have flu. Utterly spent by five, and stressed about the quality of work I am doing. Really hard brief too. Outside a bit of snow falling, but not settling. Ate stir fry with Lorraine. An early night.

Gold sofa again. Bouts of my hacking dry cough, spiteful throat etc. Lorraine went out to look at Qashqais, and came back with a brochure on Qashqais. Slept as Lorraine prepped for school tomorrow, and cooked and did everything. Spoke to Toby, walking about around his house with the sun shining in Toronto. Happy at least that I don't have to travel up to London tomorrow.

Saturday. A hateful night, kept awake with a relentless dry and sore cough. Wretched day spent feeling wan and barking like a seal on the gold sofa. Lorraine went out to get her hair cut nicely, and then looking after me very well, cooking and bringing cough mixture. I love my wife. Read a bit. Watched TV a bit. Slept fitfully. A waste of a Saturday.

Woke up sounding like Barry White till I lost most of my voice completely. Off to my Glass class, a gorgeous day. Enjoyable, although I felt a bit out of it. Ben being enormously supportive. After my glass course, I walked on to Salvage Cafe in Hove where I met Innis with his big camera for coffee and I bite. I had a hipster's snack of avocado on toast, and we enjoyably discussed various japes and wheezes. Then we went down to the seafront and went our separate ways. I enjoyed soaking up the sunlight. Then bussed home, spoke to mum. The gossip is that their next door neighbours with the concrete dogs plastic grass and phobias about anything living, are moving out, which is great news for Mum and Mason, as well as the neighbourhood. Contacted by my Parisienne pals with some animal health work for next week. Usual agency notice period of it being Friday 6pm and the work starting on Monday. But very happy to do it. Reminded by Lorraine when she got home at sevenish that I was also...

Finally sent off the manuscript Sin Cycle to the Poetry Business Competition, which is the preeminent poetry pamphlet competition. Good to send this off, if only that it frees me up to do other things. Like other poems. Off in the evening to Eastbourne. Walked down to London Road, where I met Sarah Barnsley and Marion Tracey on the train. Chugged off to Eastbourne talking about poems, and found the venue where Robin Houghton and Stephen Bone were about to launch their new pamphlets, 'All the relevant gods,' by Robin, and 'Plainsong' by Stephen. Robin worrying about the positioning of fairy lights when I arrived. Chose this moment to nip into a burger restaurant, where I had a chicken burger and left half of my fries, and we met Antony Mair and a pal. Sarah Barnsley and Antony were giving supporting readings and did really well. Several poetry pals in the audience including Charlotte, and Jeremy Page and Catherine Smith. Readings really good, everyone read well and ...

A bit of a cough today. Worked solidly on Sin Cycle for hours this morning, making a dozen last minute minor improvements. Will let it lie overnight now before I send it into the Poetry Business Pamphlet competition, which is the country's leading pamphlet competition. I have entered this before, but have never felt I've had such a strong hand. May as well start at the top. Tweeting in support of Robin and Stephen's pamphlet launch later this week. I don't do enough of this sort of thing. A long chat with Bob today, who was walking his dog as I was walking back from Sainbury's. Arranging a meet up and putting the world to rights a bit. Fresh tuna to eat with salad for tonight. Clean and simple. Cylons with Lorraine, then an early night.

For no reason a feeling of foreboding this Monday. A misty morning. Lorraine up early and off to school. I got up as she was leaving. Outside the bare tree full of starlings settled in the mist. Worked right away as usual, putting finishing touches to Sin Cycle, which must be done this week. Spent time reading poems today, and Nine Gates, Entering the mind of poetry, by Jane Hirshfield, which is I keep agreeing with. Also did a bit on my other blog. No word yet from the Paddington folks. Walking. Lorraine very pleased to be back home. I had missed her.

Lorraine and I officially losing weight from today. Drawing up plans and so on. I weighed myself this morning, and I've not weighed so much for a while I suppose that's what you get for eating and drinking too much. Lorraine doing prep for school again this Sunday. I went out for a long walk, then fiddled about unenthusiastically with poems and other bits after taking Lorraine out for a short walk. Not wanting Lorraine's week to be over.

Up and out today. A gorgeous sunny spring day. After collecting a phone charger Dawn had left at a pal's house, off to Steyning to collet Dawn and Lorraine drove us to Chichester. Went to the Cathedral there which has a few gorgeous windows, and a window by Marc Chagall , which I didn't like very much, but that may have been because it had little light passing through it when we were there. A cup of coffee and an eccles cake for me in the cafe, and enjoyed chatting with Dawn and Lorraine. Dawn cheerful at present and has been dating a nice man. Chatting later it seems by coincidence that he has exactly the same birthday as me. Then we went to The Pallant House Art Gallery  which has a lot of twentieth English Art in it, some of it quite interesting. Several pieces by Graham Sutherland, a Lucien Freud and this piece by Ceri Richards I enjoyed . There was a big exhibition of Leonard Rosoman's work called Painting Theatre , which was interesting but brought out my inner Pl...

Walked over to Evolution arts today, and enjoyed working on my stained glass. Receiving lots of encouragement from Ben Conti the teacher and the others who are liking my design and colour choices. I've been using different thicknesses of lead too. Ben teaching me lots and being very supportive. Finding I enjoy using pliers to nibble bits of glass to shape, and using the glass grinder to reduce the size of a piece by a smidge. Had a coffee with Chris, the retired teacher, afterwards. A thoughtful, interesting man, who has also written short stories and done travel writing for magazines. He travels lots now, and went to Brazil towards the end of last year and said it was quite dangerous, due to economic reasons, and he told me about seeing a man waving a gun around in the street near the coach station. He said he was interested in how geographical and historical factors influence national character, and we had a conversation about whether national character exists or not. Bright ...

A gorgeous mild springlike day. Sprang out of bed early as Russ Shed, a plumber came to look at our ensuite bathroom which is need of help. We both liked him, and he seemed thorough and knowledgeable. A porridge breakfast after he went, and we found ourselves weeding the front garden before we zoomed off to Burgess Hill and Hateful Heath to look at bathroom furniture and tiles. A Japanese style toilet in one of them. After this, we hung curtains and lampshades from yesterday. Varieties of house business. In the evening Beth and John came around. Lorraine cooked a giant chicken and leek pie as a special request, and we had a really nice evening in, eating pie and playing endless games of cards. John and Lorraine won the euchre, and Beth and I were very encouraging and pleased for them. Then Uno at some length, while listening to music and drinking various drinks. A really cheery night, till they caught the last bus home and we sloped happily off to bed. Below a sign in the tile sho...

A bright start, and Lorraine and I boofed downstairs at The Milk House for a decent breakfast and coffee, before we started to pack up. I slipped across the road to a strangely unfriendly village store to buy some toothpaste. We checked out. Luckily Lorraine was on the ball and stopped the place from mistakenly overcharging us. Turns out we yesterday walked only metres past Lake Chad, which is a former millpond renamed Lake Chad in 1908 when the son of the landowner mapped Lake Chad in Africa. On with our drive through lovely Kent countryside towards Ashford. Here we stopped off at a business park not far from Pat and Maureen's house which was composed almost entirely of car dealerships. We went into the Seat one and looked at one or two year old Leons and Atecas, and then off to a Nissan dealership to look at Qashqais. Used car salesmen are up there with Estate agents and lawyers on the weasel front. Then to another lot where we walked about in the cold wind and peered at cars ...

Up fairly late at The Milk House and down to get our full English Breakfast, which was perfectly nice. Then gradually got ourselves ready for a walk in the countryside, donning walking boots and so on. Shortly after we set off it began to rain, and we endured icy winds, sleet and rain and lots and lots of sticky mud. There were two signs about adders too, though I suspected these were motivated by a desire for people to keep orf moi land. We were following a local walk on Lorraine's iPhone, which suddenly shut down. We then followed it on mine, which also shut down just as we became lost after following some directions which had no correlation to the place we were in. Because we knew the direction Sissinghurst lay in, we were able to make our way back anyway, finding a decent path at last. Some lovely countryside, despite the weather. Both of us frozen and wet through, despite our wet tops, by the time we reached The Milk House again. A big shower in the room, so we both crammed ...

Up unexpectedly early as Erin from next door came to feed the cats though we were still at home. Up and packing for a two day mini break in Kent. Weighed myself this morning and am the heaviest I have been in a few years, which is quite depressing, although I did eat all the wrong food in abundance last week. Went to look at cars near Patcham. Stopped off at one dealer that Lorraine had been to before. It emerged that she had been given a test drive there before by Dave Carr, which made me laugh. We saw a Ross Car-ter today. I sat in the three types of car that Lorraine is looking at. Both a bit stressed as it is lots of money even for a second hand car. We are narrowing it down. Then back into our own car and Lorraine drove us to Sissinghurst. A beautiful sunny day, and East Sussex and Kent looking extremely beautiful. It is designated of course an area of outstanding natural beauty. Down treelined lanes and through old and lovely villages. We arrived at Sissinghurst at a pub call...

Lorraine and I made plans about everything we would do today in bed this morning while eating Quorn sausage sandwiches. Then we fell asleep again till one PM. Not much time to do anything other than zoom off to Sainsbury's and the run about the house tidying up in preparation for our next door neighbours Harvey, Philippa and eight month old Magnus coming around. A pleasant chat with our new neighbours and a quick glass of wine before they set off on the four second journey home. Lorraine and I then had Sunday dinner and relaxed by watching more Cylons in Battlestar Galactica, known in the Kenny household as the best SF telly series ever.

A busy day today. Up early with Lorraine and put spade shovel, fork and a watering can and off to her school. We joined a handful of Bolney volunteers and quickly planted 40 laurel bushes along the back fence of the school. This job done, the volunteers left and Lorraine and I then soldiered on in the rain  sweeping leaves and doing a few jobs around the school that Lorraine has no time to do usually.  Then planting children's ten mile an hour please signs along the little lane that leads to the school, this done home to much needed hot drinks and chicken and ham pies I bought at the butchers.  We walked down into town to delve in two cramped cloth shops full of gorgeous colours for the curtains in our spare room. These cloth shops exhausted, Lorraine suggested we repair to the Basketmakers, where we had a beer and an early dinner. Then we walked to The Duke of York's to see the film The Phantom Thread , which was enjoyably full of silences and significant looks. An in...

A bit sluggish this morning. Off to my stained glass group this morning, after I got up early and finished the design for what I wanted to build. Then walked off to Evolution Arts while listening to Rabbit, Run , by John Updike. You can see that in the shot of the worktop with my design in black lines. It will be mostly shades of grey, with a pale Victorian yellow background, and  two small chips of red in it to make the green sing. A good session, with Ben being very helpful, and a quick cup of coffee with Mick the former electrical lecturer afterwards, before I walked home and got on with thinking about poems and doing a bit of billing. I find these classes are opening up a section of my brain which has been dormant for a while, the one containing practical ability, common sense and so on. As a complete beginner it is quite nice to be in a situation where you are learning everything from scratch, such as how to cut bits from the different coils of lead, and the sheer fitting of...

Woke to a dusting of snow which soon disappeared after sunrise. Worked on poems, and sent off some poems. Pretty clear now about which poems will be in Sin Cycle . Walked over 14 kilometres by the end of the day some of it in the evening, and a few walks during the day thinking about what I was writing, or listening to Rabbit, Run by John Updike. I've never read or listened to a book by Updike before. Reflective of the times and attitudes. Excellently written but I find it hard to warm to the central character. Met up with Anton in the Great Eastern, talking among other things about the meditation he has been doing. I am attracted to the idea of Anton in a lotus position thinking about the gateless gate.  He's enjoying it and doing it at the Buddhist Centre. We then followed a hot tip from Betty and walked to East Street. The smell of skunk drifting in the streets. We found a cafe called The Bok Shop which served hot wings. We ordered lots of wings, but when they arrived the...

A full day. Did a fair amount of writing this morning, and then went for a long walk for a couple of hours. Also had a hair cut (the less hair you have the more you need it cut etc.) and bought another copy of Blake's Songs of Innocence and Experience . This with the pictures and the words facing them. In the evening Lorraine drove us down to Hove where we met Beth and had some dinner at the Regency cafe. I had superior fish and chips, and Lorraine had fish pie, and Beth had a seafood platter. Full of Chinese tourists for some reason. Then we walked along the seafront to the Brighton Centre to see War Horse the theatre show based on the Michael Morpurgo children's story. The show worked very well, and the sets and costumes were really good. The story had its heart in the right place, but I thought the pace a tad slow, probably due to playing to such a huge hall. I'd never been to the Brighton Centre. A nice way to spend an evening in the week, a rare school night out f...

Somehow twisted my neck which set off referred pain into my head. Got up in the middle of the night and microwaved the bean filled bag that Maureen gave me, to drape like a heavy slug over my neck. I spent much of the day be-slugged while I worked on Sin Cycle . Now I have Sarah's comments too, I am now making my final tweaks. Weirdly, there are several parallels with Songs of Innocence and Experience  which I haven't read for years, although one of my poems is a reworking of an old poem of mine inspired by  The Sick Rose , a picture of the Blake's engraving which I posted yesterday. Otherwise a quiet day, and Lorraine working late. Maureen phoned me up to talk about curtains. She said I wouldn't understand it but she told me anyway. Glenice phoned to thank Lorraine for birthday flowers. Meanwhile I did my 10k paces in three walks. Not snowing in Brighton as it was in much of the country, but there were occasional odd sleety or snowflake in the air but nothing with an...

Up fairly early for us on Sunday, after quorn sausage sandwiches. Lorraine and I had a longish walk and a good breath of fresh air and popped into a garage to look at second hand cars and spoke to a cagey second hand car salesman who we didn't warm to. A relaxed afternoon. I read Blake's Songs of Innocence & Experience for the first time in decades, much more intrigued by the Innocent ones than I remember, which the more you look at them, the odder they become. I have a book with Blake's pictures in them too. He was an unusual cove, and all the better for that. Lorraine working this afternoon, and I snoozed and cooked roast chicken and spoke to Mum and Toby who may be coming to blighty in the Spring. Below The Sick Rose as printed by William Blake.

Up reasonably early for a Saturday. I sloped down the road to buy a chewy brown loaf and made Lorraine and I breakfast of egg and bacon sandwiches. Anton called around for coffee as we were finishing them, and to get some official documents witnessed. He has been to meditation and enjoyed it, and was generally in a good mood. While Anton was here Sarah called around with the young Zach, who briefly dazzled us with his mathematical skills, to drop off   Sin Cycle with her comments.  Zach a delightful boy, and was impressed that Lorraine was a headteacher apparently. Anton left soon after, with shopping to be done. He and I will go for a beer on Wednesday all being well. I had a look a bit later at Sarah's comments, she had put much work and thought into it, as she does everything, all in her very characteristic handwriting. Once you tune into it, it becomes legible and all the more exciting for having deciphered it. I then had another slightly manic bout of The Big Sort ...

Up early with Lorraine and worked a bit on my design for my stained glass window. Then I walked and bussed over to Evolution Arts. A bit apprehensive, having come away feeling somewhat frustrated last week. However, this week I got lots of help from Ben. He helped me make a few tweaks to the sizes of all my bits in the practice piece, and I filed ends off lead, and used a glass grinder to slightly reduce the size of my green glass circle. Best of all I did soldering for the first time in my life, and found I was quite good at it. I lack confidence doing practical things, so anything like this feels like a victory. The thing soldered together, you then have to apply a kind of concrete to all the places where the lead meets the glass. This sets and makes the piece stronger and holds the glass in place. Then you have to tidy it up with extra scraping and then brushing. Once you start brushing the lead with the concrete in, the lead starts turning dark. Came out of the lesson feeling tha...

The day seemed to zoom past today. Got up fairly early, Lorraine having brought me a cup of tea in bed, and I wrote some bits, reworked some copy as a favour for Catherine, looked at the cover proposal for the Telltale anthology and made suggestions, was contacted by Fernanda and did a smidge extra on the work we were doing yesterday. I had plans of perhaps going into London on the weekly pass I bought, but ran out of time. Instead I went on a two hour walk down to the sea and around and about, wearing my flat cap because it was cold. Forgot to take any snaps, but it was good thinking time and I easily passed my ten thousand paces. Nice to be sucking in the sea air after being working in corporate goldfish bowl offices for three days. Holding onto my hat on the pier, which is undergoing some maintenance, and men were welding things in the strutty bits underneath over the water. Home, and cooked for the lovely Mrs Kenny, added food and judiciously added a glass of beer when she got ...