under another sun

Another swelteringly hot day. Lorraine off to work, and out this evening seeing Carolyn. The plumber arrived this morning, and work recommenced on the bathroom. I managed to do some fairly good writing first thing despite this. Somewhat cheesed off by the fact that the house looked like a bomb had hit it just in time for Toby's arrival. The Tobster confirmed his imminent manifestation on the train from Victoria, so I happily left the banging and crashing stuff, and mooched down to Brighton. Great to see him, and we walked down to drink coffee and sweeter in a cafe on Trafalgar Street. Then we took a long walk around town and down alongside the sea. It was almost too hot to walk, so we dodged between what shadows there were, and settling briefly in the Lion and Lobster in Hove where we drank refreshing bitter shandies. Then after contacting Beth and John we made our way to Hove Place were we met them for a drink. We started with pints of soda and lime. Good to see Beth and John, w...

The world's my lobster Forced Lorraine to relax. First a lie-in this morning, followed by Lorraine and I taking a trip to the gym, which I enjoyed. Home to a sensible Quorn sausage sandwich, and less sensible chocolate which I'd been given yesterday. Some snoozing on the sofa too, and reading of a nice letter from Richard. Letter from the Community charge people to Lorraine Symons and Kenny Peter. In the evening to the Lion and Lobster to celebrate Rosie's birthday, which was on the 13th. Rosie's friends very pleasant. I sat next to an interesting woman called Sam Toft who is an artist who has created a set of characters who inhabit all her works. Matt arrived too, and we had several chats. He is going through a painful separation from his choir, which he has been musical director of for nine years. It will, however, free him to work on other projects, including an opera. Both the restaurant and bar areas of the pub rammed with people, and very airless on account of th...

Rain, nothing but the wild rain Up with the lark for another walk in the country, despite the Gnome having phoned me in the middle of the night thinking I was his son whose 21st birthday it was. Anton wanted to trace a part of an alternative route which we missed out last time. We set off for a station in the mud somewhere and walked for a few hours without stopping in steady rain. Fortunately we passed a shop where I could buy some waterproof overtrousers. Not our best ever walk, our route being blocked by a fenced off bridge, and paths that had been closed. However, there were few people about and there is a grim enjoyment to trudging in the fresh air in an unremitting deluge. Terrifying moment towards the end of the walk. An enormous and savage Alsatian dog came rushing at us barking and displaying its incisors. Fortunately it made straight for Anton who, being frozen with terror, looked fairly bleak. I pressed on bravely, muttering words of encouragement until the dog bounded off b...