under another sun

Noticed there was no Brian waking me up, and no cats to be fed at home for the first time in many years. After breakfast with Lorraine, my life drawing class. Getting to know some of the other classmates better, and it's all quite cheery. Not delighted with my drawings, and I find myself making the same mistakes. The model, Katie, was one we have drawn before but she was nice to draw, being a little older and more curvy who looks like Jane Austen. She was also sporting a broken wrist, gained after falling over wearing a clown costume, and had to go to A&E in it. Then a little walk, and joined up with the Understory folks, another interesting session. Then off to Lewes to go to the Needlewriters, where I sat mainly with Robin, Charlotte, and Stephen Bone. Stephen had been really ill lately, and can't smell anything any more. Janet and Jeremy both there.  Robert Hamburger was one of the readers, and I love his work, and I asked him to sign his latest book Nude Against A Rock ...

Up as usual. Lorraine off early to have breakfast with Beth and her new NCT pal Lucy. Brian miaowed soulfully when Lorraine left and I had to go and comfort him. Sylvia was here this morning, and after phoning Mum I decided to use my new bus pass and went off to Friston Forest for a walk. While I was waiting for the bus, I bumped into Beth and Lucy, with the babies off to Rhyme Time. After that I met Eileen Counsell again, and her husband. Eileen is a former professional musician, who is active in the local arts community, and a good egg. Lovely to walk in the forest, to green bathe and crunch on autumn leaves. I took lots of photos. A call from Lorraine who had been contacted by Sylvia. Brian had had another terrible fit, foaming at the mouth and had tumbled downstairs and hurt his leg. Sylvia was in tears when Lorraine found her. Lorraine stayed with him and we made a vet's appointment for this afternoon, and we went to the vet and took the hard decision to have him put down. The...

Up at seven, and working on the same new poem. Slow progress, but it might turn into something. Then breakfast, and spoke to Mum several times, and confirming the order for the fire had been placed, chasing chimney sweeps and so on. Apparently this is peak time of year for sweeps. Nothing from the first guy I contacted, so I contacted another who gave me a date weeks away. After some persuasion he said he could try to fit Mum in before. Later in the afternoon the first sweep called to ask if Mum was in so he could do it now, but by then she'd slipped off for a sanity break in The Waggon and Horses, so we missed the slot. No sweep able to commit to a time, but will pop by when in the area. One of the two will come good I hope. Catching up with terrible local news from the weekend. A small mosque in Peacehaven, not far along the coast towards Brighton, was deliberately set on fire on Saturday. Good news was that one of the would-be murderers has already been caught: a white local man...

Both of us feeling a oddly stressed first thing. I checked the weather in Paxos where we are going and the week we are there, storms are forecast. But the weather is always wrong this far out. Then we drove off to Edgware.   We picked up Mum, and drove quickly to the The Waggon and Horses where Mum had booked us a table. It was empty when we arrived, apart from one man looking at the football, but it soon filled up. I had a chat with the guy who is a bailiff, who talked to me about the death of Paul, whose old seat he had been sitting in. He said he had bought the odd Guinness and left them where he used to sit. Paul is being lamented as someone who listened to others, which is something to aspire to. We all had roast chicken with all the trimmings, which was surprisingly good, mum able to have  couple of wines knowing Lorraine was driving. Back to Mum's and we measured up the tray of the heater and ordered a new one on line to be delivered at Mum's place.  Then Mum ...

More fireplace business this morning. Off to speak to a man in a fireplace shop in Seaford, who was very helpful, and ended up telling me about his mother who he lost last year. He gave me some good advice. After talking to Mum and her showing me the fireplace with her iPad, it finally clicked that we could just get the plate and not need all the surrounds. I showed the man in the shop the fireplace, and he showed me where to measure what was there already to ensure we were going to buy the right size of plate.  Lift you off your feet wind today. I went for a long walk, and some of it by the seafront. Was jostled and shoved by the wind. Otherwise bright, and with a white sea, which looked excellent with the white clouds. A bit weary this afternoon after my buffeting walk, and dozed. I am definitely fitting better into my clothes and the persistent walking seems to be helping lots. Spoke to Toby this evening, after he sent me a podcast interview with Brian Eno. Later Lorraine and I ...

Woke up in the night feeling oddly doomy and discombobulated. I'd dreamt I was standing in Tanfield Avenue, in Neasden, where we lived for a few years on returning from Guernsey. In the dream I was an adult, and waiting in the living room. It was strangely empty however. Into it arrived two men, my biological father, and grandfather. One of them explained they had been delayed due to one of them having to look after a film star. They were both appeared to be the same age, around 40. I stumblingly introduced myself, and shook both of their hands, and they both introduced themselves as John (which was both their names in reality too). I said, where the hell have you guys been? As far as I can remember, I never dreamt about either of them before.   Got up early, did some writing, and then put all the garden furniture away as we are expecting 50mph winds tonight. Then spent a good deal of time looking at fireplaces. Also contacting a chimney sweep to do Mum's flue. I realise howeve...

Up early, and looking at a poem, before heading after breakfast to London, and this time I flowed like a young otter from train to train, arriving at West Hampstead Thameslink in good time, unlike Monday's attempt. Reading Light by M. John Harrison. Not far from the station an absolutely skeletal woman jogger. I wondered what trauma that made her keep running and, apparently, not eating. I felt my heart go out to her. I met Mum at Hampstead station. We snuck down Flask Walk and made our way to The Old White Bear, where we are now known. Mum was looking for the man she calls the parson, who I think looks like a preacher from a cowboy movie. (He wasn't there, but we bumped into him on the street and afterwards he said hello.)  I had taken my laptop and we began to investigate chimney sweeps, and coal effect gas fires and so on. Chat GPT is my friend here.  Then we had a spot of lunch, and a couple of drinks and a good chat. Mum and I looking at the colour of the walls. To me it...

Busy at Kenny towers this morning. I got up early and did a little writing, and after breakfast, Caroline round to give Beth a fitness session. Beth also off to the dentist leaving Enzo with Lorraine for a while.  After I returned from my walk, while learning how to befriend my brain thank's to Rachel Barr's book and taking in some of the mellow glories of Autumn, I found Enzo screaming his little head off. He soon calmed down with Lorrane's cooing,  but the sound is nerve jangling. Sweet how Enzo is so pleased to see his mum though. My bedtime read the last few days is Edward Thomas's book The South Country . A torrent of  description about walking in the southern counties of the UK. Though Thomas writes beautifully, it verges into purple prose from time to time. Somehow the book's form makes you feel that all walks blend into one another as Thomas ambles through the pre-first world war countryside. Almost hallucinogenic. I love his poetry, and this work has touche...

A cheery day, though I can't seem to settle to much in the way of writing at the moment. However, my passport was delivered today in record time. Obviously one of the so dark blue it's black UK ones, instead of the EU burgundy. Still mustn't grumble. Lorraine off to Carline for personal training, and then went off to try a spot of Acupuncture. The woman who gave it to her had a lot to say about spleens, and how the spleen doesn't like cold food. Listening to  How To Make Your Brain Your Best Friend , by the neuroscientist Rachel Barr as I walk. It is excellent, clear and and practical.  In Seaford Cemetery I was taking a snap of a path, when a woman driving through, stopped and asked if I was local. I guess she thought I was there to look at the commonwealth graves. I said I was and we had a friendly chat, and told me her family had lived here for years, and there were lots of her family here. Otherwise a lovely walk, a very warm autumn day. I am loving the idea I can ...

Up and breakfasted and off to see Mum. Just before Haywards Heath the driver announced there was a bad problem at St Pancras and to stay on his train and go to Victoria instead. Only a minute later we pulled into Haywards Heath and were all told to get off the train, as someone had died on the track towards Gatwick.  Both situations were going to be at least two hours to sort out, so I called Mum and told her I'd come to see her later in the week. I felt sorry for the dozens of dispirited people outside trying to get cabs to go to Gatwick Airport. I simply caught a bus to Brighton from around the corner. This journey soon became a misery as I was desperate for a wee and every stop in the middle of nowhere was a torture. Eventually hared off at Preston Park to the park toilets.  Then I walked across the park up to London Road station, where I discovered there wasn't a train for 50 minutes. Realised then that I had also lost my ticket -- the third thing I have lost in the last w...

Slept soundly and sprang up fairly early, and made off back to Lewes again. Excellently, we also picked up Beth and baby Enzo en route. James had a Very Important cycle race to watch. We met Innis and Rosie in a car park in Lewes, then walked along the river Ouse for a while. Innis pretty busy these days with his bird retrieval work, not to mention the coast guarding he is doing, often needing hours in the middle of the night. Rosie's job, which she loved, is coming to an end, and she is wondering how to deploy the skills she has learned.  Great to have Beth with us, and Enzo looking like the best dressed baby in the world. Nice to catch up with Innis and Rosie, and Pippi zooming about happily. Then we drove off to The Ram at Firle and had a happy couple of hours, eating a good Sunday lunch, and tucking away a few tasty 'Inclination' beers from Burning Sky, a brewery just down the lane.  Fond farewells with them all.  Thence home, and a bit of a doze. I then dragged mysel...

Took a while to clamber out of bed this morning, a slow breakfast. Then off to Maynard's Green to a large house with a pottery studio at the end of the garden. Here we looked at pottery tools, and Lorraine bought several things, and a twelve kilo bag of white clay. The woman there very pleasant. Also there was a little van there run by another woman, who we bought some a refreshing cup of tea and some millionaire's shortbread. On the way home we stopped at Alfriston, at Much Ado Books, where I bought a nice book by Edward Thomas, and Lorraine bought some doilies, to press into clay among other uses. Also we sauntered into the village store, where we bought some bits and pieces, and two pasties. These proved to be absolutely delicious. Mine was a Caribbean chicken one, which was stunningly good, Lorraine had a steak one which was fab.  Delores's birthday today. So we met Delores, already a bottle of Kylie down, and Sophia her daughter, and Asher on the platform at Seaford, b...

Working a bit this morning on a poem about time. Being haunted by the idea from reading Carlo Rovelli's book on time, that there is no such thing as 'now'. Look up in the night sky and you see light emitted  millions, billions of years ago which is just reaching your retina now. Time is relative. Talking of relatives, a chat with Mum, who I am going to see on Monday. Lorraine doing Story Time, and later spending time with Pat and Maureen, and taking to Maureen to the doctor about her ears. I meanwhile was free to slope off for a seven mile walk this afternoon, noticing leaves beginning to gather underfoot. Chunky dark clouds but no rain. As my new shoes compensate for my pronated feet my legs felt tired when I got home, because I'd been using my muscles slightly differently. Felt disinclined to do much once home and resting legs on the gold sofa and sipping cups of tea. Lorraine and I had a cheery evening indoors, not going to the pub tonight as we are going to an eveni...

Off to my drawing class this morning. I was told off by Melissa for saying thank you every time she makes a helpful comment to me. She said I was obviously a polite young man. I said I still was. A lovely model we'd had before who was lovely to draw.  Melissa is encouraging folks to use easels, and I enjoyed the sight of people struggling with the deckchair/octopus hybrids at the end of the lesson. Adele there, and I'm chatting to a few of the reg'lars now. It's a fun thing to be doing, I working disengaging my perfectionism and tutting at my own avoidable mistakes.  Home to find Lorraine with Enzo, while Beth at the dentist. The little lad was perfectly happy and relaxed and occasionally smiley. I went for a quick walk, then Beth arrived with shopping.  Lorraine collected Maureen and Pat, then drove Maureen off to a knee specialist in Eastbourne. I sat with Pat, who promptly locked a cup of tea over the carpet, Beth and young Enzo Patrick. Nice to be hanging out with B...

Escorted Mrs Kenny to the library. A beautiful, early autumn morning, and after she went in to delight the infants of Seaford, I wandered over to the Seaford Peace Garden, and then mooched down to the seaside.    Then home to complete the online form for a new passport. On reaching the payment screen I started the  futile search for my trusty green leather wallet. Even Lorraine couldn't find it. I've had the wallet for eleven years but it is properly lost. Luckily, nobody had used my bank cards and I froze two on my phone app, and the other with a phone call. I called The Prince Albert, visited Seaford Station, where the man in the ticket office was very helpful, filled out the lost property form on line, and popped into Seaford Police station. No actual police there, but in the tourist office reception area, shared by the police, a nice woman said it would have been handed into her but nothing had.   In the afternoon, I took out a rubbish bag from the bin and went t...

Up early this morning. Caroline was going to come around to do personal training with Lorraine, but cancelled due to a heavy cold. I however was picked up by Brian, who drove us off to Friston Forest for a hour's forest walk. Marley shooting about collecting sticks. Lots to chat about, and Brian pausing as ever over the valley in contemplation. I always enjoy Brian's company.  Home for more coffee, and a bit of desk work, and even looked at a poem. Also popped out to get a passport photo taken. To Brighton, where I bought some trainers designed for feet that tend to over pronation. Having researched my own feet using chat GTP, I strode authoritatively into Runnersneed and soon was slipping on a pair of ASICS GT 2000 14's and it was like treading on clouds. A quick cup of tea in a cafe, and a bit of a scribble and began a new instagram page for my assorted scribbles. Then to The Evening Star where Anton and Oskar arrived just after me. Excellent to see Oskar. He's prepar...

Lorraine off to Pat and Maureen's after breakfast. For me a morning of Pooterish minor peeves: irritably failing to make much progress with my website or anything on my list, let alone any writing, then broke off a piece of back tooth on an overripe avocado on toast. Also discovered I have somehow lost the little global peeling knife I've had for about twenty years. A long walk down new paths and took out my big camera to snap a suddenly glorious and fleeting theatre of light over a field, to find the camera battery was still at home.  Called around on Pat and Maureen for a chat and to collect Lorraine. On the way out we met one of Maureen's friends also called Maureen, who was very curious about me till Lorraine said I was her other half. Then we zoomed to the supermarket. Home via Maureen's again. Home and cheery, a nice chat with Mum, I'll pop up again next Monday. Then I cooked a highly-successful stir fry with some of yesterday's leftover pork. An early nig...

A day of two halves. A busy morning. Lorraine, Beth and Enzo zoomed off to Layla's second birthday party this morning. I discovered many of the outside sofa cushions were sodden, so spent some time hanging them and doing my best to dry them in the sun. Then lots of wee jobs before heading off for a quick walk. Beautiful day, an autumnal coolness, but warm in the sun. I took the photo below when the beach area was in shade, but the clouds themselves were all brightly lit. For a moment it was like looking at the sky of another planet. The ever-changing light in this corner of Blighty is incredible.  A plunge into Morrisons, then I went home and began roasted the pork after rubbing salt and mustard and a touch of paprika into its skin. Lorraine, Beth and Baby Enzo returned. Lorraine zoomed off to get James, who had been cycling this morning. I cooked assorted veggies, and Lorraine made a strong gravy and we opened a bottle of expensive bubbly that Lorraine had been given a while ago t...

Grey and lowering cloud first thing, Seaford Head playing peekaboo. Breakfast while Lorraine and I examined her pottery experiments. She had used different glazes and underglazes and come up with lots of colour combinations, rather lovely colours. Tidying, then Lorraine playing her piano, then I left her happily catching up on The Great British Sewing Bee to boof into the outside world for a couple of hours walk, placing by the seaside, the edge of fields, down leafy alleyways etc and threading through the quiet streets of Seaford, still  listening to the old BBC recordings of Wodehouse stories. On my return, a feeling of not wanting to do very much. Lorraine sewed, I read Kay Syrad's latest collection, yellow-noon day which seems beautiful, but its meanings were elusive to me on my quick read. I must give it more time. Instead, however, I became absorbed in the women's rugby semifinals between England and France, two teams of solid ladies crunching into one another. England w...

As just thinking about poetry gives me the ick and makes my skin crawl, after breakfast and Lorraine's scoot off to deliver Story Time, I called Mum for a chat, and then made off for a longish walk, ending up at Wynnes where I bought a large bag of fish food for the goldfish and then mooched back, alongside fields. Perhaps it was the return of a day of sunshine, or that I was laughing out loud to the Jeeves story I was listening to, but I strangely full of cheer, and ended up walking about seven miles.  My gut gripes have abated as mysteriously as they arrived. And apart from a bout of tidying the house did not too much otherwise. Lorraine spent much of the afternoon with Pat and Maureen.  Lorraine home, and I popped down the road to collect her pottery experiments. She is learning about the use of various glazes and slips and so on, and very handily there is a woman with a kiln just around the corner from our road. Two boxes, and some of the glaze combinations look very lovel...

Early again this morning. Lorraine zooming off to Beth's. Enzo having his first jabs today. I made off to the life drawing class. Again not quite feeling at the top of my game while drawing. Making lots of mistakes, and drawing lots of constructive comments from Melissa. Our model today was excellent, Lorraine Yu from Hong Kong who is also an actor.  Kate, one of the others who attends there, brought me in lots of coloured paper, as I was admiring her work, where she makes marks with coloured pastels directly onto coloured paper. I might have a go at that. Someone was handing out leaflets for a Poetry event in Ardingly, then began saying that when she taught poetry in schools they rhymed and had strict metre and so on. Everything else was -- and I am paraphrasing here -- degenerate rubbish. Luckily I took no bait. T.S.Eliot for example, published The Wasteland in 1922, which didn't wasn't in strict metre and didn't rhyme -- and that was over a 100 years ago.  Was feeli...

Lorraine hopped off to the Library to deliver Rhyme Time. I hopped onto a bus to Tide Mills and walked along the off road cycle path for half an hour to Mamoosh, where I met Stephen Bone for a coffee. He looked well, though has his hands full as a full time carer. Chatted about everything from hypochondria to writing, the forest of pathetic half mast flags around Denton Corner. He gave me a handsomely reprinted copy of In The Cinema, with three quotes on the back, from Tom Compton, Robin and one from me.   Fond farewells with Stephen, and we shall meet again soon. Hopped on a bus and got off at Hill Rise and walked home a lengthy route from there, listening to Jeeves stories.  A reading afternoon. As writing seems a bit tricky at the moment. I finished Zygmunt Bauman's Liquid Times then  Bluets by Maggie Nelson. After a promising chapter or two Bauman's book, written in that achingly tedious style favoured by academics, made one or two obvious points. So it's a meh...

Woke up at fiveish and then couldn't get back to sleep, so got up and worked on my new poem for a while. Lorraine's personal trainer Caroline had to cancel due to her dog needing to be taken to the vet, so we had a relaxed breakfast.  Decided the poem might be the sort of thing to enter the lottery of the National Poetry Competition and is part of my time and memory collection.  Later I asked Chat GPT about my feet. I learnt a new word today: overpronation, when your foot rolls inwards more than average, which mine do and I discover, however, that there are plenty of shoes for people with feet like mine. As I am walking two hours a day or more on top of just mooching about, it seems sensible to invest in more comfortable trainers.  Went for my walk for a couple of hours, listening to 1970s BBC recordings of Jeeves stories. An enjoyable lurk in Seaford Cemetery. Home, and Lorraine finishing off some bags she had made on her sewing machine for Beth. A light lunch, and Beth ...

Early at Seaford station, so I walked around the corner to look at all the messages and flowers left at the murder scene. I had half a mind to take a photo of them, but there was a young lad standing in silent thought there, so I decided it was in poor taste. As I stood there looking at the teenage messages and bunches of flowers a man stood next to me, and told me that the murder was over £20 (I read later it was to do with a minor drugs debt). He also muttered darkly about drugs crime in Seaford, after I said I thought it was rather a sleepy place. The murdered boy was from Newhaven, just a few miles west along the coast.  Off to meet Mum in Hampstead today. The sea particularly beautiful and full of white horses over the Salts. I got off at Lewes as usual, and bought a cup of tea and bumped into John White, a fellow poet, who I have met a few times but never spoken to at length. We chatted all the way up to East Croydon. John had worked as an editor at the BBC, mainly producing ...

A much-needed quiet day with Lorraine. I picked and chopped up a delicious pear from our little pear tree and the final four Kenny farm blueberries to go in our yoghurt with our seeds and nuts this morning. The satisfaction this gives me is hard to overestimate. As it was Sunday, Lorraine and I had a second piece of toast with jam on it. We certainly know how to have fun.  Then we surged into the spidery garden, doing assorted pond related bits and weeding and tidying. We fished out a bucket's worth of assorted pond plants to take to Beth and James. And had also loaded the car up with bags of garden waste from this morning's work, plus a couple of rotten old MDF cupboards and an old storage heater which were littering the garden. At the tip, Lorraine gave a woman a piece of pond mint. Then home and I immediately went for a walk before the expected rain. Listening to Jeeves stories, which are a tad lighter than the Autobiography of Jung. Home just before three, shortly before th...

Surprised that I was still a big photosensitive this morning, but finally by the end of the day, I was feeling much better, and went for enough of a walk to do my 10k minimum, mainly just along the seafront down to Splash Point. Windy and bright, after a torrential and thundery start to the day. A regrouping day in Kenny towers. A few pottering around jobs, but mainly resting. I downloaded the audiobook which collects all the BBC recordings of the Jeeves stuff recorded in the 70s, with Richard Briers as Berty, and Michal Hordern as Jeeves. Listened to these as I was walking. Also Lorraine and I listened to chapter one of a science book called How to Make Your Brain Your Best Friend , by Rachel Barr, a young neuroscientist who has built up a big following on social media. It is punchy and well written. In the evening, Lorraine and I watched Murder, My Sweet, (aka Farewell, My Lovely  in the UK). A lovely 1945 film noir based on Raymond Chandler's book. Great dialogue. My blood ran c...

The £2.5k had been returned in the bank. Lorraine and I were very relieved at this news. Who would have thought buying a crochet pattern could be such an ordeal. The bank were very good, PayPal not. A new idea this morning, which I typed out.  Still finding it difficult to look at the screen due to the migraine. A short walk, but still have the post migraine washed outness. Slept this afternoon. And finished listening to Jung's autobiography, not the easiest of reads but fascinating and unlike any other biography or autobiography I have read: a sort of autobiography of the inner life and development, not a chronicle of events. Perkier this evening. Lorraine went to the Boot, where we met Adele and Patrick, Andy, Steve and Guy. Adele showing us an excellent coat of many colours type of jacket she had learned how to make on a course. All friendly and jolly as usual, and a lovely way to end the week. Melissa popped over to say that the modernism exhibition at the Towner was really goo...

First thing, Lorraine discovered that overnight two and a half grand had been hoovered out of our joint and her personal account. She had made an online purchase of crochet pattern last night for a couple of quid via PayPal. Obviously this revelation very stressful. The bank were very helpful, and seemed to indicate her funds would be returned, but it had to be investigated. PayPal less so. But all in all a shitty way to start the day. I made off to my life drawing class where I kept getting the proportions wrong for some reason. A nice friendly atmosphere there, and Melissa good value as ever. Kate was going to buy some coloured paper, and asked me if I wanted in on some, which was nice. Home again. I went for shortish walk, down by the sea. Great brooding clouds, and the sea greenish and sparkling with light. I always like it when the sea is lighter.  On the way home I walked up past Morrisons, and there were a group of young people gathered on the corner opposite the supermarket...