Autumnal

Awake early, and thinking about Anton. After breakfast I went to Brighton to hang out with him. He's being remarkably resilient and has got everything as much under control as possible, and Oskar was still in his room upstairs. A coffee and a chat about last arrangements. Fond farewells. Next time I see him, he'll have had his operation, and will be beginning a new lease of life. I am looking forward to that.

I sloped down to a charity shop on Western Road to drop off a bag of books. Anton keenly feeling the need to get rid of stuff, having dealt with a good deal of his mum's things over the past week or so. I mooched briefly about in Brighton for a bit, but the wind had gone out of my shopping sails. Trained it home again. In the evening, while Lorraine was at pottery, I nipped over to Lewes, for another quick meet up, this time with Robin. Raining hard. We had one drink in the Lewes Arms, then another in the Elephant. Just a catch up, and a talk about the podcast. We are going to wind it up, after a couple more episodes. I want to end well. As usual we are on the same page. Robin quite busy with music this time of year, and also having moved recently. After several years the idea of doing something different is appealing.

M. John Harrison won the Booker Prize today. Coincidence that I'd just been enjoying his book The End of Everything.

Lorraine returned hangry from pottery, having dropped a candlestick into the glaze. Not her best session. A quick snack and she was back to good form. 

The day had left me with a feeling that was hard to describe. Perhaps Autumnal is the word, enjoyable but also slightly sad.