under another sun

Meh! Lorraine and I both slightly subdued with colds. Lorraine reading about leadership and cutting up pieces of fabric while I did some work for one of my clients - an interesting job, helping a new agency develop its tone of voice - and we took a walk in the drizzle, and I ended up buying loads of good tee-shirts at ridiculously low prices. Reading the interesting 50 Literature ideas you really need to know by the admirably clear John Sutherland. Surprised to realise I know more about current literary ideas than I thought. Although eagerly turned to the pages on Reception Theory, because I wasn't sure about what this meant. But it simply means how a literary piece is received by people or societies encountering it. A sort of phenomenology lite. Looking for an opportunity to use the word 'meh', but haven't found it. It signifies supreme indifference, and is being used self-consciously by some of my middle-aged UK facebook friends. A slow evening. Reading and eating a d...

Scarring the heart All day writing the website on atrial fibrillation and strokes. Fairly cheerful about it, though this was my ninth day of work without a break. For a workshy dilettante this is something of a strain, consequently felt rather washed out by the end of the day. Learned however about surgery for fibrillating hearts, where the surgeon scores the tissue of the atria, and the resultant scars block the pathway of faulty electric messages allowing the heart to resume a normal rhythm. The ingenuity and practicality of medical minds amazes me sometimes. I treated myself to his new CD Small craft on a milk sea by Brian Eno which is beautiful and uncharacteristically fierce in parts. Also bought Thursday Afternoon , which is one of his hour-long plinky ambient things that are perfect to work with. An inspiring aural armchair. Somewhat braindead this evening. Cooked a veggie chilli, watched Frasiers and football with Lorraine and started The Mind in the Cave by David Lewis-Willi...