under another sun

So managed to get the podcast out on time today. Robin cut more out of the Gregory interview which really helped focus it, and then we recorded assorted banter and I edited this and built the episode, sending it off to Robin who cut a few seconds out where, she said, she 'sounded a bit numpty'. Then I wrote the blurb and uploaded. Made off to the gym. A bit of social media promotion and I was done. Felt like plenty for one day. Emailed Gregory to thank him. Sent off boiler servicing stuff to the solicitor. Then made a complex salad of my own invention with  boiled potatoes and sausages. Also received an offer of work for exactly the same days as my booking on Monday. Drank beer and watched Star Trek next generation, after Lorraine had watched Sewing Bee, Darning Wasp thing.  Lorraine had a difficult day. But Summer freedom is coming...

The longest day. Interview with Gregory at 5pm in New York who I have corresponded with intermittently for several years. Fascinating guy, and I really liked him. We shared an early love of Yeats, and like existentialism. Funny to hear birds singing outside his open window, and thinking how those were birds a continent away. Modern tricknology eh? Otherwise a day of getting my ducks in a row for the aforementioned interview, communicating with solicitors, and cooking this evening.  Below, and the sun goes down in the west on the longest day, and a cheeky screen grab of Gregory.

Lots of stuff to do, quite a bit of it tiresome. Think through a podcast interview first, deal with plumbers, look at accounts again, check with German clients we were finished. A bit before noon I mooched down to the gym, then caught a bus to Patcham and walked back home. Very hot. Can't seem to do any of my own writing at the moment, which is irritating.  But finally nailed down a time with Gregory in the US to do an interview this afternoon, which I am pleased about. Spoke to Estate Agents in the evening, started filling out a new form from the solicitors and cooked for us all. Chatting with Sam who was finding it difficult to renew his passport. Luckily he sorted that out today, and got an appointment at a passport office next week. Star Trek tonight after I cooked a stir fry for us all, Lorraine and I also watching a man on YouTube called Rokkit Kit  who stays overnight on remote Australian islands and goes fishing from canoes or dives coral reefs and so on. Visually very...

A very happy new year to anyone who drops in here. This morning I had the 24 poems of my sequence Sin Cycle published in Eratio Poetry Journal . The editor Gregory is based in New York, and is rather an excellent person, and this is a fantastic start to the year for me. Great that the sequence is published, as I am proud of it. Felt another wave of gratitude to Robin, Charlotte and Sarah for their encouragement. Lorraine pleased for me. I woke up early, and decided I needed to make a decision. Either dwell on the symptoms of my hangover, or get up and start clearing up. As I crept out of bed, Anton texted to say he had already been for a healthy three mile walk. Lorraine crept downstairs too and we gradually made good, and had breakfast, after I had helped Lorraine get dressed. And then chatted to Mum who was about the task of struggling with Mason's hearing aids. A slow day. Jade up late this morning, Beth mid afternoon, and Sam at around 7pm.  Lorraine and I had a sho...

Up early and sent off two manuscripts, finished some work for my pals in Hampton, which then boomeranged back twice during the day. Ran to the post office, did laundry, including Beth's jeans. She and Lorraine had caught a cab back from Brighton last night after meeting Sam, and Beth had sat in some wee in the cab without realising it.  Into Brighton, bought a few xmas bits, collected a prescription and paid nowt for it, which still surprises me. Rain dodged generally, received vast Sainsbury's delivery, Amazon packages arriving, and found time to slump on the sofa to watch an episode of my guilty Netflix pleasure: Colony. Then cooked for Lorraine, and went around the corner to Rick's house to collect him and Ben and went to the Park View for a festive beer for a couple of hours. Nice time. In between various gossiping,  Ben saying he was about to start a course on Sacred Geometry and would use this to inform his own work. He said the flower of life, below was an example...

Working long and hard on editing two of my stories, The Hounding , and The Meat It Feeds On , and writing the first draft of a new short one called Snowfall . Other bits and pieces too, and sent a manuscript, rather speculatively, off to Gregory in New York. There is something, I have decided, which is very empowering about being 60. It's damn the torpedoes and full steam ahead. Loving reading my book of Ray Bradbury short stories at night. Lorraine coldy and tired at night. I started to read a story but she was asleep in about 30 seconds.

Much more positive today. Due to a) having a quiet word with myself and b) the fact that Lorraine was working from home. Actually a day with a smile on its face, and I got lots done, sent off the pamphlet MS to someone else, sent some poems off to a magazine, was sent a fascinating pdf of a book called The Wet Bicycle , by its author, Gregory Vincent St. Thomasino, the editor of e.ratio in New York. Also received two collections by Janet Sutherland. Strangely tired this afternoon and conked out for the best part of an hour. In the evening I sauntered down to The Joker, where I met Anton, and we ate some wings and curly fries, and shot a fair amount of breeze. We went then to the Great Eastern, and then somewhere else for a game of Flintstones-themed pinball while talking about books, which Anton won of course. Playing pinball is one of the first things I did with Anton. Then to the Batty for an absolutely bloody final beer. Not been in the Batty much recently, and it is no different ...