under another sun

A mystery this morning. Some unknown creature moved one of the plants in our wildlife pond about a foot from its original position. I suspect fowl play and think it may be a seagull beaking obnoxiously at its container. After breakfast with Pat and Maureen, Lorraine plunged into the garden, and I did sanded the ground floor window ledges and door step, like a proper DIY geezer.  Then a bit more flat hunting. The four of us piling into the car. Off to a flat that the estate agent was rather ashamed to show us once he arrived. The walls were literally sodden with damp, and there appeared to be some species of deciduous tree growing from the skirting board. Two other places potentially to be viewed were discounted unseen being similar to one already rejected. We went back to the place they looked at first, Stratheden Court with the sea view, and as this seems perfect for them in every way, the die has been cast. I spoke to a bloke sunning himself in the garden, he said he loved it in ...

The gradual improvement continues. Smell and taste still patchy and a bit of a cough.  Off this morning to sunny Seaford. We saw two properties, the second was a bungalow with a nice sunny garden, spacious and roomy inside. But the area, full of bungalows, gave us the creeps.  The first property was one we both instantly smitten with. A gorgeous house with an immense and beautiful garden. This made us highly over-excitable and jittery with possibilities. Sat by the sea and had a coffee and sat in the sun, with bold crows pecking around and tried to retain a shred of common sense. Home and mooched about for a bit. I was determined to break 10k paces for the first time in weeks, and so mooched up to the Hillfort for the first time in ages. Lovely stuff. Then home to prep some food. In the evening Lorraine and I watched the Joker movie, which was grim and depressing, but quite stylish too.  Below Seaford head, with some blokes fishing, and a bit of the path on top of the hil...

A low key day, Lorraine not feeling very well, and I still had a sore throat. Calliope this morning again trying to catch shadow birds. Lorraine went into town with Beth to sort out phones, and do some shopping.  I did some work up at my desk. Later in the afternoon, Lorraine and I walked up to Osborne Road to be shown around the new house. Betty met us there for a look round too. Lorraine and I very excited by seeing it again, and Betty liked it too. Felt really cheery that the house was better than I remembered it. Then we popped into the Preston Park Tavern, which is the one of our new local pubs, and had a swift drink sitting outside, before sauntering home. A quiet night indoors half watching the guilty pleasure of the X Factor and eating the tasty spaghetti bolognese that Betty had cooked for us.  Calliope at it again.

Pleased with the aftermath of yesterday's reading. Cheery emails with Robin and some nice feedback from folks, and texts from Mark. I need a more restrained day, with only one solicitor's letter to send and no agency work to do. Read another book of Paradise Lost in a cafe, and did some light bits of work. Beth cheery today as she has got a part as Fannie an ugly sister in a panto in Cairo. She will be put up in a five star hotel too, which should be great fun. Was phoned by Tracey for a pleasant and commiserating conversation - she is a nice woman especially when you bear in mind she is an estate agent.  Lorraine and I walking to get a sneak peek at our new house and check out the neighbourhood again. It is within five minutes walk of two good boozers, as well as a little parade of shops just around the corner, with a nice very middle class butcher and grocer, a general store, chemist, off-licence, vet, a fish and chip shop, a nasty looking pizza takeaway (the new Ace?...

Stressed. Off to the doctor's first thing where I found in the waiting room a leaflet about erection problems I'd written about ten years ago prominently on display. Still standing, I thought as I scooped one up to keep as I am useless at retaining samples of this kind of work. Then the nurse syringed my ear, and talked to me a good deal when my head was full of bubbling surges. It needed two attempts and then, miraculously, for the first time in three weeks I could hear again, in stereo too. Everything seemed very loud. After a couple of hours of various types of house and neighbour nonsense, I scooted up to London to Gee Street quite near the Barbican, arrived a little early and marvelled at St Luke's a church now used by the LSO and co-built by Hawksmoor, which has the strangest tower I have ever seen on a church. Then a meeting with the nice Melody Dawes to discuss my book proposal. She explained that the publishing model had changed recently and her company were ...

Breaking off this morning twice to look at other empty properties that need work. Increasingly warming to this idea. Work mentioned by the agency did not materialise, so went to the gym again but felt leaden.  Ended this stressful week by doing a small amount of work for the German clients. In the evening Lorraine and I had a takeaway and watched a couple of excellent episodes of  The Wire . I am reading the collected letters of Kingsley Amis. They make me laugh, although I disapprove of myself as I do so. Betty arrived home late just before bedtime, tired but cheery.

Long and good chat with Mum this morning, and again later in the afternoon after we got Toby's message that he and Romy were flying off to Japan. It's at times like this that there are disadvantages in having a far-flung family. Later I went round to Janet and Ken as I hadn't been able to reach them by phone. Just as the stress was lifting after the turbulent granddaughter had been returned to Italy, Janet has discovered a lump in her breast and is going into hospital to have it checked out next week. Ken looking brighter than he has for some time however. Home to get some of the drips of agency work done that have come through in the last week done. Also had a long chat with Bob. Good to hear from him, and Carl, Bob and I are planning to meet up next month in London. Later in the afternoon Lorraine and I looked at another house, and Lorraine booked up a couple more for us to look at tomorrow too. Starting again, we are adopting a new strategy, looking at houses t...

Rapidly out of limbo. Our offer accepted on a house in Havelock Road, just five minutes walk from where we now live. So we have a buyer for our house and our house offer accepted. Rather wincing from the stamp duty on our purchase, but we are going full steam ahead and damning the torpedoes. Feeling excited in flashes. Other good news was that Sam had got a first in his Philosophy degree at Leeds. He was also pictured in the philosophy brochure, with a full page of him and an article encouraging other students to study there. Lorraine naturally very proud of him and I am too. He has done splendidly. Otherwise my bêtes noirs of gout and prostatitis combining to make me feel a bit wretched. But it will pass. I am caught in a Catch 22 as I need to be gout free for a few weeks to get onto the new, and much better, treatment. Yet another quiet night in behaving myself, when we should have been out celebrating.

Back to work. Finding myself a good deal better than I was last Thursday, meant that the day passed smoothly and unremarkably. All to the good as I was dealing with the estate agent and negotiation on price. We are almost there now, I hope, but will have to wait till the haggling is done and dusted. Back to Brighton without incident. Downloaded The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro. He is a marvellously subtle writer, and I am enjoying this book immensely. Off at Brighton and popped into Sing Li as Lorraine was doing Governor training. All very friendly in there. Chatting to a man I knew there waiting for his fish and chips, who I'd seen at a couple of the Shakespeare Heptet gigs. Then back through the station dodging past a scuffle between two station workers containing a fighty drunk little man before getting home to lounge before the TV watching football. Dominated this evening by the Uruguayan Suarez having a bite at an Italian defender. This is his third biting offence ...

Somewhat better today, although there was considerable room for improvement. Spent the day sleeping and recuperating. We were supposed to be up in the Cotswold's this weekend seeing Sue & John, but I just wasn't in the right shape for the journey. However there could be a big silver lining. I dragged myself out into car with Lorraine and we looked at a few houses. One we saw this afternoon we both fell in love with, that is just five minutes from where we are now. Property in Brighton is a bit of a feeding frenzy at the moment but we are hopeful. Not a bad result for a day mostly spent sleeping and dozing. Betty here, teaching in the morning and then going out with her pals Becky and Kayleigh in the evening.  Lorraine and I watched The Hunger Games movie then bed.

A lovely (step) father's day text from Beth this morning. Really surprised and very touched indeed. Walked up to Seven Dials to see Linda and look at her house which she is considering putting on the market. It is a big step for Linda as her house is very much associated with her life with her late husband. She came for a walk to look around ours too. Linda off into town, and we welcomed our new neighbour in the house next door. Then Lorraine and I walked off to do some shopping at Sainsburys. These things done, we returned and a sleepy Claudia emerged in the afternoon. Sleepy but as good as gold. Spent the afternoon discussing the properties we'd seen at the weekend, caught up on some admin and billing, and watching some of the World Cup. A roast chicken in the evening. All good.