under another sun

Enzo's birthday today. It hardly seems possible really. Funny how a little thing who has only been part of everyone's life for a year is so established and loved as a little person. Innis and Rosie came around, and we all made our way around to Squirrel's End where the garden was being made ready for a teddybear's picnic. So we had to take teddybears. I took my monkey knitted for me by Maureen. We left Pippi in the kitchen. Julie and Andy and Lorenzo were there already, helping in the gazebo. Innis had brought his bubble machine and set this up, and several pals and other relatives arrived. I particularly enjoyed seeing Laura and Braheem, and their gorgeous daughter Layla now four, and Suzie, who I caught up with about the shows she and Sarah have put on. I told her what I'd seen in Trafalgar Square with it being roped off for shows, and she told me all about it.   Most importantly Beth and James were delighted with how the afternoon went.  Enzo was of course was hi...

A cheery day. Up fairly early for a Saturday. I went to the gym this morning, and on my return found Lorraine, Beth and her old pal Laura were sitting under the umbrella outside in the sun, sipping iced coffees. We'd not seen Laura for ages, and it was good to see her, especially as she is now expecting a baby. She was looking very good on it, but Laura, who is a funny girl like Beth, putting it down to vomiting so badly the first few weeks, that she lost loads of weight. Beth enjoying a free weekend as James was watching motor racing on the continent.   After I had a shower, we had some light snacks of Lorraine's deliciously lemony home made hummus and things like carrot sticks, and felt very virtuous. In the afternoon, after a spot of meditation, Lorraine and I got ready for Patrick and Adele to come around. I decided to barbecue as in this weather it is a winner. Cooked chicken with limes in, and a few sausages and Morrisons Finest Scotch beef burgers, onto which I melted Mo...

Everyone at Kenny towers up early this morning. Beth up and off with the sparrows,  and Lorraine too on her new wheeze of going to the gym before work. I pushed on cheerily with The Hounding , which I am very pleased with. Beth back mid morning and we had a nice chat. Anton called me describing the most appalling plane ride to Spain in an Easyjet flight full of stag and hen parties. The pilot attempted three times to land, and couldn't because the worst storm in Spain's recent history was happening. Meanwhile Anton's fellow passengers spewing. They had to fly to a different airport and try again. Meanwhile Anton's uncle John, who was driving to the airport to pick him up, was caught in floodwater, and had water in his car, and then was trapped in the airport. Even Anton was scared in that flight, expert, as he is, in air disaster scenarios. I made off to the gym again, and had a fairly productive afternoon too. A good day. I cooked a nice chicken stew, and Laura pop...

Continuing my health-themed week. Walked down to Specsavers for a nine o clock eye test. I told the optician that I had seen white lines in my eyes so she insisting on a full retinal scan with those eyedrops that make you look like an opium addict. I had two  pressure tests, long bouts of examinations, the pinpricks of light to test peripheral vision (100%) I was told. Luckily, it seems my eyes are perfectly healthy and I have an unusual but benign area of pigmentation around one optic nerve. Quite fascinating to see photos of inside your eye. Nothing to be done about all the floaters in my eyes though. She said she could see I had loads of them. I chose two pairs of new reading glasses as I needed a slight prescription change, but dazzled as I was I could have chosen anything. At least I was better than the man who I noticed who had been agonising a full 40 minutes as.  Dracula-like I was released at 11 am, flinching from traffic lights and the brightness of the 11am overca...

First of the Month. Pat confirmed I have a week of freelance work to look forward to next week.  Just as well as the Chiswick agency's pencil for next week failed. Otherwise I slunk indoors, working on the horror story, although not so fluently as earlier in the week, waiting for another section of the story to open up before me magically. Lorraine working from home first thing this morning, which was nice. In the evening, after L got home from work, and I had a short walk, listening to the beginning of The Exorcist , by William Peter Blatty. Starts ominously, which is what you want with horror. In the evening, L and I jumped in a cab and went to the Station pub in Hove. John and Matt were setting up for their gig. Confusingly, their band, Body Talk, have a new bassist, also called John, who sports a near identical beard to our John's. They have a new singer, called Amy, who was pretty good too. This leaves  Matt to focus more on guitar and some backup vocals. They played ...

While Lorraine supported Beth in making a job application, I made off to the gym. Preston Park busy with sporty people. Another trundle on the cross trainer for me. Feeling a bit down on my own efforts today. I realised that over the last few years I have had fairly big artistic projects to get involved in,  such as launches of poetry books, concerts with Matt, plays with Betty and so on. This year by comparison feels fallow. Home, and Lorraine and Betty finishing off, and Beth's pal Laura came by and they zoomed off together. Lorraine and I broke up the small shed that had been used to keep rabbits in by the previous owners. We emptied it out, then unscrewed it and crowbarred it into obedience. The garden now has new decking, almost complete, as I spoke to Clem over the fence and the last joists have not yet arrived to complete it, but is strewn with the old decking, and bits of shed -- so a bomb site basically. Calliope hiding among it. Luckily, Clem knows people who will tak...

Slept long and hard. Lorraine needing loads of sleep. I made teas and breakfast and it wasn't till after noon that we got up finally. We went for a walk to the shops at five ways. Dawn came around, and Lorraine cooked us  a delicious fish curry. Then off in Dawn's car to Beth and John's flat, where they had invited a few of their pals around as a flatwarmer. I wandered down to the co-op chatting with John, and bought a few beers, John using his magic discount card. A really cheery evening. Beth said she felt all grown up coming out of the bathroom, and realising all these people were friends she had invited to her own flat. I enjoyed chatting with Beth's pals Sarah and Suzie, and Ainsley and Milly, Laura and her excellent boyfriend Brahim. James there too, and it was good to catch up with him. I enjoyed enjoyed meeting Alex who teaches with Beth again, and I had a long chat with his partner Luke from Sydney. Good to see Rosie and Innis too. Rosie has almost read The S...

Mas has been back in intensive care and Mum found him still rather out of it and not comfortable. This is concerning and I am going to hospital tomorrow with Mum. Otherwise it was a day of major rehearsals, from midday till gone six at the ever-hospitable Duke of Wellington. A good day's work on We Three Kings with a few moments of hilarity. Beth very good at driving the day. Made a couple of cuts to the text, both of which helped. A fast drink at the pub after, and the round was bought us by the owner, which was surprisingly kind of him. Then Beth and I caught a cab home. Lorraine had cooked us a roast chicken and lots of nice veggies, and Beth's pal Laura came around for a sleepover, and we had a cheery supper. Lorraine drank some wine, and I had a brace of beers and sank happily into the sofa watching some SF series on Netflix. Below, James's silver shoes for the part of Balthazara.

Lorraine and I got up to go to Oskar's confirmation at an unspeakable five o'clock, which felt like four due to the clocks going back in the night too. Enjoyably enough managed to shock and appal Beth and Laura, who were just coming home after a lively night out with their top hats at an angle. Lorraine drove us nearby, and we walked in the hosing rain to St Nicholas' church. Here we found Anton, Anna and the bairns. Lorraine and I sat with Brian and Anne, and David and Stephanie (who I'd not seen for some time, and it was nice to meet again). The service started in the dark, with people finding their way to pews with their phone lights. Klaudia came and sat next to me, and we snickered together at the sight of one of the clergy bumping into the spiral of stairs up to the pulpit as he walked from a lit room in the dark of the church. The service starting in darkness and employing candles and fire to good effect.  The Bishop of Lewes was leading the service, and at o...

Lorraine and I had another restful start to the day. I lay in bed and wrote another post about Chad and read the paper, and my lovely wife brought up some breakfast. Eventually I got up in stages, ironing my shirts while Lorraine who had been momentarily gung-ho about getting up lay in bed playing computer games. Once up we conducted a major tidying up session. Later, Beth's pals from uni Eliza and Emily arrived, to the accompaniment of much excited squeaking from Beth. Then we all got ready and John, Lorraine and I walked down to the Hare and Hounds, and the immaculate girls cabbed it. A nice night with lots of Beth's besties there such as Laura and Sarah and Matt and Amy and many more. Mexican food there, including burritos with rice inside, which I found a bit odd but everyone else said was normal. At one point all John's housemates arrived en masse, and I had a brief vision of him as the leader of a cult. Interesting chat with Matt who grew up in a haunted house, and ...

Kenny Towers abuzz with activity this morning, Beth off teach and Lorraine and I falling asleep again, then realising I was hideously late for Lewes. Lorraine kindly drove me there then did some shopping for tonight's beano and then went to do her pilates session. I went to the Town Hall in Lewes to attend the Frogmore Poetry/Needlewriters/Telltale stand in the societies fair for an hour.  I wandered about a bit and fell into conversation with the Vikings, a pleasant couple who were fully dressed in dark ages gear and I was invited to heft a variety of weapons including a spikeless mace, a sword and a shield. Their main business is battle re-enactment, and 'competitive' battles, which seems to be a bit like rugby with axes.  To the stand where I met Jeremy from Frogmore, and spent an hour with Charlotte Gann, who is a fantastic poet and had been kind enough to review The Nightwork for Frogmore. For all kinds of reasons the chat I had with Charlotte about poetry was one...

Ruefully hungover leading to a virtuous tea-sipping kind of day. A fulsome late breakfast helped. But Lorraine on a bit of a mission so sort out the water butt we had bought recently which involved sawing and struggling with guttering. Beth returned after being away for a couple of days with her pal Laura, and much general hilarity about struggling to drill holes in butts. Laura looking really skinny after going on a protracted diet. In the end Lorraine and I repaired for a little sleep instead. Before going back to lurk in the garden, planting and watering beans to supplement the few that are growing. A bit of destination TV this evening. The Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell series, which I am still liking a lot, and then a new series called Humans, about androids set in the very near future also quite promising.

I was up and out to get some bread and bacon from around the corner, but returned to Lorraine roaring upstairs. Calliope managed to compound her sins by sneaking into the bathroom for a moment when Lorraine wasn't looking, to poo in the already defiled tomato tray she'd used last night before we had a chance to throw it out. A day of gardening again, I am loving gardening at the moment, and Lorraine and I are having great fun together.  Today we removed plants with steely resolve, and I took up a long half buried plank that had divided the bed at the bottom of the garden from the rest of it. I thought this was going to be hard but it lifted straight up. Lorraine repositioning or potting some of the things we had dug up to make way for the patio. Laura around to hang out with Beth this afternoon. I told Laura I was doing manly things in the garden, and she said, 'what, like flowers?' Off to Waitrose later, with Beth and Lorraine who were buying fixings for puddings t...

Clocks sprang forward in the night, the traitors. Up and a croissant breakfast with Sue and a few slow cups of tea. The dog Paddy makes a huge fuss unless he gets his way and has a cup of tea or coffee too. The morning had gone in a flash and so we drove off in search of Sunday lunch, and we had some roast food in The White Hart in Stow in the Wold, which had interesting stag's head wallpaper, and loud-voiced young waiters. Food okay too, which John and I washed down with a couple of pints of Guinness. Fond farewells with Sue and John, it had been jolly good to see them. Lorraine and I started the long journey home. We stopped off nearby at an architectural salvage place, where the person working there stared at us balefully then ignored us as we mooched about. But we had come for ideas, and did not fork out for any of the overpriced stuff on offer. Then home, listening to a Mayo and Kermode podcast. A squally day, driving past Heathrow not envying those on the planes taking of...

Reading Lorraine bits of W.B. Yeats in bed this morning, lucky girl. Then L off to spend some time with Dawn and I sloped into town to receive a much needed massage from Jewel, who has massaged me off and on for a few years now. Always surprised by how a deep tissue massage releases strange knots of emotion and anxiety. It triggered fleeting edgy, panicked moments despite the sedative sounds and aromas in her room. As well as loose limbed and beaten up, the experience usually leaves me feeling weirdly vulnerable as if I am crab that's shed its shell. I flitted home sideways and found myself in need of sleep for half an hour or more. Got caught up in watching Rugby on TV with a hugely entertaining Le Crunch game against France which was exciting.  A cheery evening at home with Beth and Laura, who watched L and I drink a couple of glasses of wine, and provided us with endless entertainment playing with hair extensions and larking about in general.

My office vandalised by cats this morning. The kangaroo plant on the top of a bookcase had been pulled down and emptied on the floor. Getting on with stuff including turning again to Skelton Yawngrave. For this is the year of completion. Not cutting through with as much clarity as I'd like, however. Lorraine working from home this afternoon. I spoke to Janet today, and heard from Reuben too. I may be meeting up with one of his sons Jem to discuss ghosts. Ghosts are not discussed enough. The night I saw what was to my mind unambiguously a ghost I was at university studying philosophy. It has always interested me in how nobody in the philosophy common room wanted to discuss the matter at all. I went out for a much needed walk for an hour or so. Got some keys cut in the afternoon by which time the skies had cleared and sunlight poured down from a blue sky. Lovely to be walking through the park. The sun also gleaming on the half a dozen white caravans and vans of the Travellers who...

So an unexpected day at home as mum was not well with a sudden onset of cystitis. So instead Lorraine and I spent it cheerily doing small things to the house, although this business necessitated bending my thumbnail back and it filling with blood while on a ladder. Other than that I emerged unscathed and we got quite a bit done. Although at one point I had to step aside and let Lorraine and Beth heft something due to my back. Rather unmanning to watch the womenfolk hard at work.  Luckily, however, my back pain has retreated enough for me to sleep, which is rapidly improving life. The constant pain and minimal sleep I've had since the beginning of the year are not a winning combination. My flying start to the year has been rescheduled for February. Lorraine and I then took a turn about the park looking at plants and smelling the first flowers.Home after our walk, pausing at Choice Cuts to buy two little feta and spinach pies (weirdly mixed with minty peas however, which was in eve...

A beautiful day, and up earlyish. Lorraine waking Beth up for work twice, the second time in a Mr Punch voice. After Beth had shot off, we had a Quorn sausage sandwich for breakfast, before Lorraine  made off into town to have her hair done, and scoot about town. I spent a happy afternoon with Klaudia, dropped off by Anton and Oskar who were on their way to a party. Klaudia and I hung out and did some work on poetry together, for a homework assignment. She wrote a lovely piece about a secret beach, and another (slightly less lovely) about a dead jellyfish, a dead eel and a dead goldfish, which made us both laugh. She had recently discovered this blog too, and found there was lots of stuff about her on it. We read some of this out, even back to when she was a tiny child. It brought back good memories of things like sword fighting in the bluebell woods, or the day when Oskar soaked me in the back garden. We hung out looking at music videos too. I really enjoyed having my funny, i...

Up with the larks this morning, or more accurately with the infernal Calliope who, because it is light, is waking me earlier each morning. A day writing the copy for an agency's own website. An interesting job, and a new client for me. The agency in question seem to have a clear idea of what they want to say, and I was instructed to dial down 'the agency bollocks'. Most refreshing. This took up the day, with pauses for conversation with the ever-bouncy Max about weddings and also about Skiddadle, a giraffe that little Elijah left here after a party once, and wasn't found until discovered recently wedged behind a wardrobe, near some Aramaic scrolls. I intend to send it back to Elijah with an account of its travels. Also talked to Bob, who was loping through Manchester on the way to train people in legal software. When Lorraine got home we stole away to the Shahi for a cheeky bite, as working up in the warm study on website copy had produced a keen need for a pint o...

Up and awake early, and one of those rare days when I simply get out of bed the wrong side, and felt distinctly grumpy. A long and very deep chat with Lorraine helped though. She is a treasure. Later, after Lorraine returned from a haircut, I fell under the spell into the 1000 piece jigsaw that Lorraine is doing, with what must be a hundred different species of beetles on it. Became slightly obsessive about this. Beth returning with Laura, who made ah sweet noises as she entered seeing us both frowning over a large jigsaw. Lorraine quite a jigsaw fan, and even allowed me to slot in one or two.  A chilled night piecing things together and chatting with L and the girls, who spend half the time in each-other's company laughing.