Too much coffee

Lorraine struggling with a bad back this morning. But after taking painkillers and moving about a bit, decided to drive Pat and Maureen back to Ashford.

I met Palo at the Church Lane Tea rooms, to sign some more copies of Snow, and have a cup of coffee and a scone. I went there with Lorraine, Pat and Maureen some other time, and they are famous for their pies. 

A cheery chat with Palo. Mark the guy at Hedgehog press is going to send us lots more copies as they are going like hot cakes. One nice thing about Seaford is that it is a smaller pond, and its easy to find your artistic tribe. I like Palo very much and its nice to connect with people through making art in its different kinds. We went into Gallery Uno, and chatted with Phil who runs it, and a man there who makes automata, and then we popped into the Crypt, where two artists were having a show. Good work there, but I was deeply impressed by Palo flogging one them one of our pamphlets.

Home and helped Pat and Maureen into the car to set off back to Ashford. After they left, the house seemed very quiet and still. I took to my study and did some writing, which wasn't coming that fluently today.

I caught the train a little before six, and went off to Brighton to go to the pig hog poets at the Pipeline. I met Charlotte on the train at Lewes, as she was the person who was giving the reading. A funny little place that used to be a Norwegian bar, where Anton and I used to drink flavoured vodkas late at night. 

Really enjoyed Charlotte's confident reading, and I love her poems of course. You can hear me talking to her about them here if you fancied it. There was another featured poet called Joanna Lowry, who had some nice images. There was an open mic, and I reversed my decision not to read, and read a couple of things I put on Instagram years ago from my phone.

Walking back towards the station with Charlotte I began to have palpitations, a bit rattled. Not quite as rattled as Charlotte whose friend had just dropped dead recently of a heart attack, and then got very worried when she asked what was up and I told her I was having palpitations. I was fairly sure it was due to dehydration, as I'd drunk mostly coffee all day. I bade farewell to Charlotte and decided to get a bus to Seaford rather than walk through town. I then chugged a litre of water and soon felt greatly improved. The 12 was only going to Newhaven, so I got a cab to the station and then trained home, replying to Charlotte's concerned note, with the reassurance I was still alive. Once home, despite having drunk a litre and a half of water, I still did not need a pee. Drank a further bucket of water and felt fully restored.

Lorraine read me a story in bed, and feeling safe and sound, fell happily into a deep sleep.  

I peed like a horse in the middle of the night.  

Below Charlotte reading at The Pipeline, and  Palo and I signing booklets again. Snow for some reason is shifting like hot cakes. We both seem to have got the memo about wearing