under another sun

Yay! My first day off in seven days of various kinds of slogging, and mercifully not having to travel by train anywhere. Anton swung by in his BMW convertible with the roof down and drove Lorraine and I off to Steyning to collect Dawn. Nice to be cruising around like this, but sitting in the back on the motorway buffeted my head, and worried at 'The area of concern', aka my bald bit. We went for a short walk in the woods at the bottom of Chanctonbury Ring, which I enjoyed, despite still feeling the after effects of the ghastly throat and cough business  and laboured going uphill. I also have a slightly lurchy ear thing going on, which doesn't help. Among other bits of personal gossip, Anton and I had a long discussion about Tolkien, he's contemplating doing a degree on it.  I recommended he download the The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao , and he had just started to listen to it. It is larded with Tolkien references, and is set in Dominica and New York. Back to ...

Trains still hateful. More energy today, and I managed to cut through work I was doing with the loquacious Trevor like a knife through butter, rather pleased that I have still got it. Nice to have been teamed up with Keith again in this stint, usually enjoy my times at Tavistock Square, and pleased to see how well Slug is doing there. So happy to be on my way home. Went to the Preston Park Tavern with Lorraine for a bite to eat, before coming home and going to bed fairly early. Almost finished The brief wondrous life of Oscar Wao today by Junot Díaz which I think is excellent book, and refreshingly different to my recent reading. Listened to it playing patience on my laptop, this gets you into a mind numbed state that allows you to block out the endless commute.