under another sun

An utter deluge first thing, then off this morning to Steyning, to have brunch with Dawn at her house. It had been her birthday a few days ago. Also invited where Dawn's old pals Mark and Jane and Denise, all of whom I have met several times. I bumped into Jane in the park the other day with Toby. Most newsworthy was that we also met Paul, Dawn's new man friend. He was well read open and chatty, and born the same year as me.  Everyone had bought assorted food with them, and Dawn had been making her famous quiche with a baked rice base. Lorraine and I brought a courgette loaf, which we had made yesterday.  Dawn often has good parties, and this one was featured lunchtime dancing in her wee front room, and Dawn stage diving from her sofa into everyone's arms. She is prone to this sort of thing from time to time. All very cheery. Dawn and I swapped birthday presents too and she gave me a book called All Art is Ecological by Timothy Morton, who the back jacket calls the philoso...

Now in Haywards Heath, in a particularly pleasant and leafy former council estate. A minute’s walk away across a little open ground is a fenced path that runs along the side of a field of neat allotments. Few people on the streets, and an edge of town feeling. Looking from my desk across the leafy estate to a tree-lined horizon. It is now Friday morning, the morning of Halloween, and for the first time in a week I have a moment to catch up. Last Sunday was our wedding anniversary, which we spent packing. And on Monday, we packed in earnest. We recaptured Brian who has been acting weirdly over the last few months, when he returned ungratefully for food before disappearing for the rest of the day. Surprisingly Brian quickly resigned himself to his fate and began to be more like himself again, and once the cat flap was replaced with the original glass sheet in the front door there was nothing for them to do other than stare out like prisoners. John helped us pack for half a day on M...

Peashooters Bah to sore throat and cough. But no rest for the wicked, to Lorraine's house for a bacon and egg sandwich and to work, packing and cutting things to car carriable size with a vicious circular saw. Lorraine also has some paving slabs which I am going to use to replace my rotten decking, so I moved some of these about, and then when Sam came around, we all cuddled black bags encrusted with snails, mud and cat pee up to the car. Then to the tip. Some part of me quite likes gruffly saying MDF here mate? etc. to recycling men . To Dawn's house, a few doors from Lorraine. Dawn had also invited Mark and Jane, Denise. Really liked Dawn's guests, Mark really likeable, Jane at one point describing what snow smells like and I wish I had my pen and notebook, Denise a really lively lady from Brum. Between courses Dawn supplied a peashooter game with proper cardboard tubes and animal targets and pre-rolled spitballs, which got rather competitive and out of hand as they wer...