under another sun

Lorraine off to Rhymetime this morning. I got on with trying to finalise the full poetry MS, and did a little more of the edit. Dived at by the bastard gull on the roof, going straight for my head and veering off a couple of yards away. It's hard not to take it personally, as it ignores Lorraine. To Joy and Jim for a cup of afternoon tea. Joy had a sort of cherry sponge cake of which I ate two slices like a starving dog. Lovely couple and a cheery chat. Lorraine talking lots about pottery, and they have lots of pottery in their house too. Joy is going to have a second hip replacement soon, so we are going to keep Jim topped up with milk and cakes while she is recovering nearby.  Home and I called Mum. She had a horrible day of getting herself in a tangle talking to the US Social Security people, and having to hold on for hours and not have her call returned and so on. She said she also made a payment, which I didn't understand and she couldn't explain. Eventually she found ...

A more pedestrian pace today, which was very welcome. Enjoyed lurking about at home. Lorraine having a bit of a rest day. Mum and I went out for a walk, sauntering down to the sea, which was calm and grey with quite a few Boxing Day walkers mooching along with their dogs or families or both. Lorraine and I had invited Joy and Jim from next door for a late afternoon chat. They are excellent company and we had a festive glass of wine with them. We are very lucking in our neighbours, and we like them lots. Mum enjoyed meeting them too.  A quiet evening. We watched a disappointing Poirot movie starring Kenneth Branagh, A Haunting in Venice , which was pretty poor. Mum enjoyed seeing 1970s top of the pops Christmas hits however. Even Mull of Kintyre is decent if you hear it once a decade.

So a note from mes amis in France saying that my final payment, a paltry one day's work, has been issued to me. Before their company was bought out, they used to pay me on the same day I invoiced them. Unheard of everywhere else. But since they've been bought out, I had to wait over four months. I can only feel for my former colleagues, having now to work in a ponderous corporate environment.   A bit of editing this morning for the podcast, and Robin and I did some recording this afternoon. We had Joy and Jim from next door around for coffee this morning. Lots of chats. The erudite Jim revealing a love of the QPR football team, and the fact he watches YouTube videos about 'the hoops'. Absolutely delighted that Mum said that she might come down on Boxing Day, given a lift by Monika and Ocktay. This is great news, as she has not been to Seaford before. Perhaps I can be excused for feeling a bit exasperated because Lorraine and I had offered to collect her on many occasion...

A good morning's writing, despite the wifi being rather than looking up things quickly on the internet.  I am reading an amazing book at the moment called The Order of Time , by a physicist called Carlo Rovelli. He writes beautifully, even poetically, and is unafraid to use metaphor to make developments in the understanding of time graspable. I am finding my mind blown by some of the concepts in there, that have been common knowledge in science circles, even though I have to read it chapter at a time.  In the afternoon Lorraine having returned from rhyme time, and then eating pies with her mum and dad in the Church Lane tea room. We went next door to have a cup of tea and some nice chocolate and ginger biscuits with Jim and Joy, we sat in the garden and had a nice chat. We really like our neighbours, and Jim is an avid reader so I gave him copy of the Mariscat Sampler.   However after about an hour the area of concern  detected raindrops pinging off my scalp and we c...

Lorraine off to Rhyme Time in the library, a more manageable group size this time, and she had a friendly conversation with one of the babies' grandmothers, an ex-nurse she had lots in common with.  I did some writing of my own, really delighted to focus on my own work. I also felt a mite perkier than the last few days. When Lorraine returned from nursery rhymes with babies, we went for coffee with Joy and Jim next door. Just as we stepped onto the pavement, however, a bird voided its bowels with an audible splat on my head. Seconds after, with the guano still enriching my scalp, Anton called and enjoyed my predicament.  To Joy and Jim's with an unbefouled, or should that be unbefowled, head. We both like our neighbours. Astonished to learn that Joy will be 80 this year. She looks ten years younger. We also discussed the bit of fencing we need to replace. Good fences makes good neighbours. A few bits of house bits this afternoon, and I scribbled down an idea I had in Joy and J...