under another sun

In foul mood for much of the day. On the house front, there is pressure being applied by our buyer's solicitors to move out. Meanwhile the people selling our house are in a bad way. Angie is recovering from a serious operation and they understandably dosen't want to be rushed. Our position is that we are trying to swap contracts with them and are willing to put our stuff into storage and sofa surf or go for a cheap holiday to allow the people to move into ours and give them extra time. The last time I had a property transaction that went smoothly was the 90s. As I elegantly described here , but it's the powerless waiting that sends you mad.    Work, which I found stressful and irritating, finished early afternoon, but then work conversations trickled on. Was offered a smidge of work by Slug which was withdrawn minutes after I had agreed to it. And at close of play was told there might be a tiny bit at some point...  I am not going to hold my breath.   Went to the gym...

Up and working with Keith for a couple of hours, then Lorraine and I zoomed over to Ashford to celebrate Pat's 89th birthday (which was yesterday along with Sam's) and Pat and Maureen's 65th wedding anniversary.  When we I arrived at Pat and Maureen's house I had to zoom upstairs and work and give a presentation. Microsoft teams suddenly not working on my laptop... Nine minutes late to join feeling stressed and flustered. Thankfully the people involved are very nice. After this crammed into the car, picked up an old pal of Pat and Maureen's called Janet Pooley, and then made off to The White Horse in Chilham in Kent (and very chilled it was too). Much enjoyable bantering in the back of the car. Maureen was saying that Margaret was very nice 'but how she ended up with a one like that...' glancing darkly at me. She does make me laugh. At Chilham (indeed very chilled) we met Lorraine's uncle Steve and we went into the White Horse pub where a table had been ...

I spent much of the Bank Holiday doing the freelance job. One of those days driving with the handbrake on the opposite to a flow state. 

So up early after a night of pooing water. Up and after doing a quick covid test, registering it online, and having a shower and Lorraine drove us off to the hospital. Couldn't find anywhere to park, so I bolted from the car and went straight to the colposcopy department for my 8am appointment. All fine there, apart from the bit where I was being interviewed by the nice male nurse and given a blood pressure reading, which I told him would be high because of hating to have my blood pressure done. It was, so he kept taking it which kept climbing. He then suggested I have some sedation before the procedure, which I reluctantly agreed to. Charming consultant, who needed a nurse to push at various parts of my guts to navigate his probe around them. He said my intestines were unusually long and loopy. However there was nothing sinister there to be found. Which was obviously excellent news. Sat in recovery sipping sugary tea and enjoyed the relief of another mini-ordeal melting away. Real...

Got up early, after a while started working with Keith, having taken Lorraine a cuppa in bed. All going well and both fairly cheery till he got a rather disconcerting call about a medical matter. Luckily Keith was working half a day today, but I stopped early too and will have to do more over the weekend. Lorraine off to Bolney School for the last time, to have a handover meeting with the new head called Emma. She then went to see Sarah for a cup of tea and a chat. Sarah trying to get her bairns to call their former head teacher Lorraine, which is a bit weird for them. 'Low residue' fibre free food. White toast breakfast, and then white spaghetti with a bit of cheese and olive oil for a late lunch, and that would have to be the last food till tomorrow.  The evening given over to preparations for tomorrow's colonoscopy. I drank two unspeakably rank 500 ml drinks over a couple of hours, designed to flush out your GI tract. A vile faintly fruity flavour with a salty undercurre...

An amazing electrical storm while it was still dark this morning. The lightning flashes every other second on average, the type of storm that belongs to Greece which created an ominous continuous rumble. The strange sight of persistent rain till around noon too, very welcome in this neck of the woods. Lorraine went downstairs during the storm to close a window in Sam's study, and had to clamber seminaked on a table gothically illuminated by flickers of lightning. Beth told Lorraine that a tree outside their flat had been struck.  Toast this morning -- with our plum jam, now a bit thick but delicious. Otherwise slipped the surly manacles back on for a day working with Keith for a new client. Most amusing part was that we did this initial stage as a giant mind map, for which I had the software. Fun to observe Keith writhing with pain when I selected the wrong sort of green and so on. The client's project at an early stage -- so we were mainly defining the strategy rather than doi...

Slept uneasily, unable to tolerate the state of our plum jam. After discussion with Lorraine I decided to buy some pectin and redo it. Lorraine worked out that because the fruit had been so ripe there was very little pectin in it.  Arrived at the Solicitors at 1:30 to drop off an important signed document, only to find that Healy's were actually in a space time anomaly somewhere in the 19th century judging by the fact their reception was closed for lunch till two. Called Lorraine. Then Keith messaged that the client meeting he was about to join wanted me on it (despite the fact I was explicitly not being invited earlier). Couldn't do this as I was in the middle of Brighton. Then Bob called and we had a nice chat as I walked to Infinity foods. He seems in good spirits, and we're going to hook up soon. Bought some liquid pectin in infinity foods, which surprised me as I was expecting it to be a power. Then back to the solicitor to passively aggressively drop off my envelope. ...

Still trying to get to grips and pick up the pieces of daily life. Chats with Keith about business stuff this morning. Lorraine and I doing property things together and signing documents and so on. Our souls, however, still looking at the Ionian sea and mountain and islands. Epic plum jam making. Picked 3kgs of plums from our back garden. Today time to turn them into jam for the year. Cue a massive jam making session. Boiling away in two pots, at the same time as Lorraine was cooking a plum pie, and a gorgeous lasagne. However much I swore and worried at it, the bloody stuff wouldn't seem to set. We gave it a go, eventually, pouring it into the jars but it was far too loose once it had cooled down. Bitterly disappointing, and although said we could dribble in into yoghurt and porridge and so on I felt gloomy about it. Late that night however I googled what to do, and you can reboil it and add extra pectin. This is tomorrow's project. Below the over-loose jam before it had coole...

Woke up a little bleary after arriving at Gatwick not long before midnight. Sam had waited up for us and it was nice to see him, all tanned from his holiday.  Up naturally early as we are still on Greek time, two hours ahead of the UK.  Pat and Maureen are here, having stayed for the two weeks to enjoy being in Brighton, and looking after the cats. Sam taking great care of them, and took them to the pier with Beth while we were away.  A few work and podcast matters to get on with, getting in touch with Keith and an agency pal to indicate readiness for work pencilled in, and with Robin about podcast matters.  At lunchtime we drove to Eastbourne with Pat and Maureen. Maureen wanted to do some shopping in C&H fabrics, and we each had a pot of tea and a scone in the C&H cafe. Lorraine and I also bought a fish jigsaw. Maureen, who I had spent a good deal of time joking with, quite ribald over my misshapen scone.  I saw them into their train at Eastbourne, and...

 So a holiday. Thank God.  I needed a complete break, so did not take my computer and did not blog.  Instead I took a new mould green notebook, a kindle, a volumes of poetry by Cavafy and Elyitis and my camera. I wrote was a couple of Greek inflected poems rewriting the drafts in my new notebook just as I did in the out of date diaries Gwen and Dave used to give me as a teenager that served as poetry notebooks. The journey to Meganisi fine. A morning flight, Lorraine drove us to Gatwick. Everything looking sunbaked even in the morning. Passing an inferno of a car which had crashed into a tree and was gouting flames and a vertical line of smoke, and a fire in a field visible as we took off.   The plane delayed an hour and a half on the runway, but the flight fairly comfortable, and after a judicious gin and tonic felt reasonably relaxed. A small boy sitting at the window seat and me in the middle. Lorraine made friends with him of course and he showed us a water drink...

A good night's sleep in my own bed, and cooler overnight too. Lorraine and I with a list of things that must be done. I had a work offer for the time I was on holiday to reject in a way that encourages future business, and to write to Robin about guests next season on Planet Poetry. We got on a bus together and I hopped off at the Stein and dropped of our 'wet' signed contracts with the solicitor in case we are able to swap them while we are on holds. Then I walked up to the vampire section of hospital outpatients. A ticketing system, with only one phlebotomist there. I was told the wait would be an hour or an hour and a half. Looked at my ticket and there were twenty people ahead of me. After twenty five minutes only three people had been seen so I walked down the road and found a cafe where I was passive aggressively served a cup of tea and a sandwich in the Portland cafe. When I returned to the waiting room there were three phlebotomists and my number had just gone. Argh...

Up for toast and tea in Edgware with Mum. Got the trusty yellow notepad out and tried to work out next steps. Lorraine explained to me that the hospital should make a discharge plan for Mas, which may involve care. I had no idea what this might look like so I called Carl who explained that there would be a social worker involved and that the care was arranged through the local authority. This all very helpful. Then mum fished out a red folder on the table we were sitting at, which had all the contact details in the local authority and the care provider she had already been dealing with. This an amazing find as it gave me all the contact details. Mum also looked at her emails and I forwarded myself some correspondence from the care people from six months ago. Basically they had a bit of care, with people calling around to help Mas shower and so on in the morning, but they cancelled this in the first lockdown. The physiotherapist called mum, and clearly a discharge plan is being formulat...

A very warm day, and off to Edgware writing a list of things that needed to be sorted out.  Very hot and close in Edgware. But by the time I reached Mum she had managed to find out which ward he was in and make an appointment for a visit at 3pm. He was now in the AAU ward. Her lovely neighbour Maheena had offered to drive us to Barnet Hospital. Mum a bit shattered by everything. It is very stressful for her, not knowing what is going on.  Mum says Maheena is an angel and talks about her having feathers because she has been so kind to Mum and Mas. She helps them when she can and did shopping for them in covid times, and was happy to drive us to hospital. We arrived very early, but when I asked they allowed her in. There was a policy of only one visitor per person, but they let me go too.  Mas conscious and quite talkative. He has broken ribs, but they are checking for other stuff. His hearing aids weren't working so he when he told us the man opposite looked like a skeleto...

Took my poo sample down to the surgery first thing this morning, and got home and spoke to Mum who told me that Mason was taken to A&E last night. He had fallen face down on the stairs and was unable to move so she had to call an ambulance. Mum had spent the morning phoning the hospital and trying to find out where he was. I picked up the baton and after dozens of calls which are just left to ring out I was able to discover that was still in A&E and had had breakfast and was doing okay and that they were running tests on him.  I popped out in the afternoon for a quick haircut from Stacy, and on the way home went to the gym. The physical jerks helped me manage my stress a bit. Today, on top of yesterday's fast tracking for a cancer checkup is a lot. Home to more chats with Mum, till I had spoken to the A&E nurse at 8:30 pm, who said he would probably be moved to another ward tonight. After chatting to Mum I had a can of beer and watched Star Trek with Lorraine.

Dawn popped around this afternoon. So nice to see her, and so nice for Lorraine to be able to be able to sit and chat with her combing enough hair off Calliope to knit a jumper with. Dawn getting married next May all being well. Exiting! In the spirit of thorn grasping, I called the doctor because of weird guts. A conversation this afternoon created a swift response and I popped down to collect a kit for the poo doctors. Was called efficiently by the hospital the same day who will want a new blood test and probably a colonoscopy. Currently managing hypochondria but all this not well timed for the holiday. More thorn grasping with the bank. Because of my great Natwest business account saga of 2021 that lasted for six months I was left with having my business account not linked to my personal account on the same online page and so on. Fixed this at last (I hope) after talking to four people. New teeshirts arrived. Stripes! Lorraine and I finished watching Star Trek Next Generation, which...