under another sun

Proper holiday today! Up to London early on a morning when flights were stopped at Gatwick due to a rogue drone menacing the runways. A bit before we reached Gatwick, I saw a Police helicopter hovering over woods, searching for the criminal masterminds at work.  A bit eery and peaceful to go through Gatwick on the train and see no planes arriving or taking off. I arrived early in Covent Garden, and found myself looking for a present for Lorraine, and finding one, which was an unexpected bonus. Then I met Mum for a cheeky two hours outside The Salisbury on St Martin's Lane.  The pub's website says it opens at 11 am, but this was a filthy lie. Instead we went for a walk around Covent Garden, and then were first into The Bear and Staff and as Mum zoomed into the loos, I spoke to the loquacious woman behind the bar. She said at Christmas her family has secret Santa as there are too many of them, and she had not 'got the dollar' for nine presents. Mum horrified by glancing...

Lorraine and I didn't get up out of bed till two o'clock. Slept a good deal, and feeling slightly better than yesterday. However, cups of tea and paracetamol, and off in a cab to the station in the rain to meet Betty, who was going off to London to do an audition. Lorraine and I up to see Eddie Izzard at the Palace Theatre. We walked through Covent Garden, and Chinatown, which was still celebrating its monkey business, and busy with people trudging about in the rain. Nice wandering about in London with Lorraine. We picked up our tickets, and then went to the nearby Punjab Restaurant  for a spot of knife and fork action. A good meal and we were given two lollipops, which we ate in the theatre. Nice to be going on a date with my lovely wife. Eddie Izzard was the full Eddie Izzard, surreal and carried the audience with him on fantastic imaginative journeys. Particularly liked the death of Caesar scene. Stabbed twice by a Roman called Tenacious and his dying gasp misinterpr...

Early business calls and general work and business this morning. In the afternoon off to see Bob in London. We'd arranged to meet outside the Swiss Centre, which is long-closed and replaced with the mindless M&M World. I arrived early and watched the greeters singing along to the old pop music blaring out of their speakers with a ghastly compulsory corporate cheer. What a vile way to earn a living. Bob loomed of the flat grey day at me and it was jolly good to see him. We found a strange little pub and had a couple of sharpening beers and a packet of peanuts and pork scratchings before surging off to see the Goya The Portraits exhibition at the National Gallery. I wasn't incredibly excited by this prospect, but it was fascinating. The amazing depth and differences of character he was able to bring out was astonishing. Everything from pompous punchable windbags, fiery independent noblewomen and thuggish royalty. Interestingly his best friends and his much loved son were pa...

Calliope waking me from about 5:30 this morning, something I did not miss in La Barbarie. Despite having not to be up in London till 11 I got up at a sedate seven under The Cloud of Things That Must Be Done but my desktop decided not to work after an update, so this flying start was wasted. Off to the Smoke doing some work on the train, and found the new agency. All okay, and an interesting project, the commercially sensitive details of which I cannot go into here. Off at lunchtime and found myself walking along Long Acre near Covent Garden thinking that this time yesterday I was walking on the Icart Road with Lorraine and Mum. I closed my eyes and could still picture it. A beautiful day though. I spoke briefly to Mum and Mas as I mooched along eating a salmon and cucumber sandwich. A slightly lonely day, being the newbie and knowing nobody. Some stir in the office when people spotted a couple making love in a room in the building opposite. Home again, walking though London and dow...

French flair and floods Up to the smoke this afternoon to meet my lovely French client Jeanne. We met in the Royal Opera House restaurant. A lovely building to wander around. I was five minutes earlier than Jeanne and I stood out on the terrace looking down on the bustle of Covent Garden below. Jeanne arrived with chic hair. How can hair be chic? Is the question I have since asked myself. But it undeniably was - and probably one of those sinister French things. We sat in the restaurant, squinting into the low bright sun above the square. Good to see her and chat briefly about projects we will work on next year, which will make a nice change from diseases. Then off to Richmond, where I waited in one of my favourite pubs The White Cross , for Mex and Sarah. Waiting I got absorbed in a book of poems, and then looking up saw that the river had flooded and the pub was islanded. Trapped in a pub! The horror. I bought another beer to steady my nerves. Took a while before the water abated and...