under another sun

Breaking cover Lorraine pulling the side panel from the bath and deconstructing her bathroom to look for the source of a blockage in the pipe early this morning. After a spell of this sort of thing, Lorraine off to get her back cracked by a chiropractor, while I repaired home. Listened to the soundfile of The Rainbow Chorus recording of Matt and my song Found . Matt added an organ part to the opening which was splendid. Then Matt arrived in person, and once he'd done stroking Calliope, we spent some time in the ghastly business of looking at photos of ourselves, and okaying the look and feel of our CD which I'd been designing. Both very happy with the direction it is all taking. From there, the three of us went around the corner to the Yeoman for three of their devastating Yeoman burgers. I blame Mason, who started all this Yeoman burger business. A quiet evening in. Below I took an image of a cactus flower in Kew Gardens the other week. I have obviously cropped it, reversed ...

Recording day The morning of the day I became a recording artist sucked: beautiful sun triggering the release of pollen and other miscreant spores into the air making my throat sore. Then I felt like weeping with frustration as my computer, with its spanking new hard drive, failed again. Managed to start it and restore it to an earlier version (i.e. sometime yesterday) and it has been working since then, but I trust it as far as I can throw it, which will next be out of the window. To St Michael and All Angels for 3:30. Dr Simon Scardanelli our engineer already busy with a nest of wires and microphones. Matt seething as the priests told him that we would have to interrupt our recording for them to say prayers, something which nobody had mentioned until we arrived. This being England, we all had a cup of tea first, and there were quite a few nerves flying around, although there was a very supportive atmosphere. Simon really nice guy, who was veru reassuring to me. Adam and Tom assemblin...

Songs and snowfall A little more snow this morning, and fine one flake at a time snow fell most of the day. I sealed myself indoors working again on Skelton Yawngrave and other bits and pieces. In the evening yomped across town to Kemptown to St Mary's church for the World Aids Day concert, where I met Lorraine. Vast high roofed church I'd not been in before, which was surprisingly warm inside. It featured The Brighton Gay Men's Chorus, Hullabaloo, which Lorraine used to sing with and was chatting to lots of its members, and Rainbow Chorus, which is Matt's choir. Also was a lovely soprano called Red Gray, accompanied by Fingers Capra plus Qukulele a lively singing and ukulele band. Fascinating to see the different styles of the conductors, and choirs. Kirsty has a lovely and highly expressive way of leading her choir. The young conductor of the Gay Men's Chorus very fluid in his movements and a twinkling personality, and Matt, talking to the audience in an assured ...

Found Just plain cold today. Thanking my lucky stars I did not have to commute into a tube-strike-hit London. Instead off to the shops and the gym. Bought some spoons and forks, to complete a green handled set I'd bought recently, and envelopes to send another book off to Amazon. Then a spell in the gym, and straight to Sainsburys where a man started joking about panic buying. The unusually early snow which is afflicting much of the UK still hasn't been seen in Brighton. It is coming later this week. Began revising Skelton Yawngrave today, after about 93 displacement activities, and I think my amends will considerably strengthen it. Feeling hungry and a tad coldish as the afternoon wore on. Spoke to Anton who was keen to discuss football, and to Lorraine, who has managed to vault the first hurdle towards a possible future headteachership which was big and clever of her. In the evening off to St Michael and All Angels church to sit in on a Rainbow Chorus rehearsal. Fingers at th...

Spidering about Up in Edgware after a wine befuddled sleep, and scoffed hurried toast and tea with Mum and Mas, interrupted by a sizeable spider legging out of the sleeve of Mason's fleece. It bolted onto the breakfast table amid some uproar before Mum trapped it in a cup and set it free outside. Arrived at my Chiswick dentist early. The receptionist, who has been there for more than the 20 years I've been going, treated me for most of this time with a deep and motiveless suspicion. But now I'm greeted as a long lost friend. I've had the same nice dentist too in all that time whose name is Lucinda. Between her filling my mouth with scrapey sucky things, we had a conversation about electric toothbrushes. Apparently the Philips Sonicare I have is highly recommended. I told her that I had at one time written the copy for Philips about the Sonicare. Did my words persuade my dentist to convince me to persist with the Sonicare toothbrush? It's enough to turn a chap all Bi...

Found Matt sent through the midi file for Found today, the piece we wrote for The Rainbow Chorus, the choir Matt is MD of. Sounded like a sure fire hit to me, very singable and catchy, with a just enough complexity to give it depth and longevity. Looking forward to hearing the choir sing it. Meanwhile today I have been working on the words for the In Praise of Music piece we are doing for a competition. This is the first time we've worked where the music is pre-existing and I have to supply words. Bit of a bizarre experience: I sat listening to the midi on repeat until my brain started splurging out words, which to my surprise were based loosely on the Creation, and were full of Biblical imagery. Talked to Matt this evening and explained that my drivel detector was on the blink, so he should treat the results with caution. Otherwise a bitty day. Went to the gym, chased payments, went through the latest Amazon hoop to try to sort the page out for our book, added a sentence to one ...

Amazon soothes my nerve A note from Amazon today with instructions. The page for A Guernsey Double should be fully functioning in a week or so. More online form filling, then off to the gym to sweat on the hulk legs machine for half an hour. On the way back, a long chat with my neighbour Wan. He is between jobs as a company treasurer. Instead he is restructuring his garden, a process which involving sacks of topsoil and rubble being moved and new sacks being delivered. His garden was the nicest in the Twitten already. The consequence of time on his hands. A text from Anna today, who has just got new coaching job, which she's really pleased about. Also phoned by Keith - back up to the smoke next week, but mercifully not on Monday. In the evening I went to the North Star for a late drink with Glen Capra, or Glen 'Fingers' Capra as I like to think of him given that he is a fabulous pianist, and played in This concert etc . Matt and Wayne were also there, and a man called Rich...

Empty cranium A slow start, followed by a spot of shopping with Lorraine. People in the shops were driving me a bit mad, perhaps because I was a fragile after the pizzafest. Met Matt this afternoon for quite a businesslike chat over a beer in the back garden of the Batty. He is writing Found now, based on some lyrics I wrote a few weeks ago for the Rainbow Chorus. The lyrics are, Matt says, sweet, and Matt has alarmed himself by writing something in E flat Major. He has a savage insect bite too, which had given him blood poisoning, and he has been taking horse pill antibiotics, but thankfully he was in better shape today. Also discussed a piece for singing voice and trombone (which we are going to talk to my neighbour Mark Bassey about) based loosely on a monologue I'd written a long time ago about having a sinister double after talking with Toby who was studying Doubles in literature at the time. Matt and I also made a bit of a next steps plan, which we both felt rather cheery abo...