under another sun

My mum is cooler than your mum Off to meet Dawn for coffee this morning, she is reading Skelton Yawngrave, and is organising me to do a session in a local school. Really good opportunity this to get some appropriate feedback and possibly open some new doors. Ate buns and drank coffee at Lorraine's house. Dawn has only read the first section of the book but picked up every thread with amazing thoroughness just from this. Lorraine too has this ability to get to the nub of a poem for example with speed and clarity. It's very impressive. Afternoon spent compiling the application for funding from the Guernsey Arts Commission. Basically a form and some other stuff. Form filling makes me want to self harm. I've never encountered a form that doesn't ask round hole questions when you have only square pegs. I hate them. This form is not designed for literature for example, and the questions are not appropriate to it. Lorraine helped me, and then after a few hours I gave up in dis...

French flair and floods Up to the smoke this afternoon to meet my lovely French client Jeanne. We met in the Royal Opera House restaurant. A lovely building to wander around. I was five minutes earlier than Jeanne and I stood out on the terrace looking down on the bustle of Covent Garden below. Jeanne arrived with chic hair. How can hair be chic? Is the question I have since asked myself. But it undeniably was - and probably one of those sinister French things. We sat in the restaurant, squinting into the low bright sun above the square. Good to see her and chat briefly about projects we will work on next year, which will make a nice change from diseases. Then off to Richmond, where I waited in one of my favourite pubs The White Cross , for Mex and Sarah. Waiting I got absorbed in a book of poems, and then looking up saw that the river had flooded and the pub was islanded. Trapped in a pub! The horror. I bought another beer to steady my nerves. Took a while before the water abated and...

Gobama! A busy day... Woke at 6:30 with Calliope standing on my face. Then off to the quack's first thing for checkup. While zooming off to London, spoke to Mex who is still juggling career options, and Bob who is still wondering if moving to Salisbury was a such a good idea after all. Worked with two art directors, Betsy and Erica who, being American, were exceedingly cheery at the prospect of an Obama victory, as is almost every sentient being on the planet. Erica sporting a top with a stars and stripes on it, and Betsy doing various cheerleader type dances, and even a cartwheel. High spirited ladies both. We all worked fairly late, and then had I a fast and cheeky beer with the FB and Erica in the Distillers before the call of the seagull grew strong in me. The FB made me laugh describing his Frenchified heating habits to Erica: "I'll eat anything I can beat at chess". Spoke to Sophie whose mother is in hospital, and who is having a tricky time with her assistant i...

Networking A busy day today. Went down to the Quadrant pub to attend the Brighton Social Media Cafe. Mex had let me know about this, and she attended too. A diverse and interesting group of people with a pleasingly geeky undercurrent. I met several interesting people, including having a long and interesting chat with a business advisor called Julia, Mex also introduced me to several other people, and stepping in to big me up in the course of introductions. A nice man called Curtis was saying that he wished his ex-wife would be as nice about him. It was all well worth attending, and I learned quite a bit too. And only about 50% of it from Mex. The cafe will be repeated so I'll pop along again. Then a delicate Thai meal with Toby and Mex. They'd not seen each other for several years and it was all quite jolly. Mex full of news and ideas, as well as vivid accounts of cat handling, her cat Boli. By coincidence I am in the market for a cat too, and may well score one shortly. Fond f...

The propaganda of cats Crawled from my airnest to gulp cups of coffee with Mase. Mum breakfasted lightly on water and ten pills followed by a bit of pancake with sugar and lemon. I started sneezing this morning and began cringing at the thought that I was about to introduce a cold into the house. So I set off for Brighton, threaded through the tubes to Victoria, where I missed my train by under a minute, the third time in a row this has happened. This for some reason made me feel infuriated. In fact there was a distinctly tetchy undercurrent to my last 48 hours. Sneezing abated however, which was good. Once home, several calls with Kate the new ON TRACK editor. And one with Emma, the pleasant press officer at Glyndebourne. I will be doing an interesting interview there on Friday. Also called Mum in the afternoon, and she sounded in good spirits, having just spoken to our Toby, who is coming over soon to stay with me. Also made an hour or so to work on my poems. Complex cat propaganda: ...

A swallow tale Withdrew like an ammonite into its shell today, working on something which should have taken me a couple of hours, but ended up taking all day. Otherwise all quiet - several phone chats including with First Matie and Mas - and some business chat with Simon, and Mex contacted me with some useful connections in Brighton. In the evening finished Day by AL Kennedy which I really enjoyed. All about a Lancaster rear gunner who, in being an extra in a movie about POWs, begins to relive his war, and work through the damage it caused him. Just lovely, fabulous writing. AL Kennedy is a woman of many talents including being a stand up comedienne - and she handled this story with enormous authority and brilliance. Mum may be leaving hospital tomorrow, either way I will go up to visit, after attending a minor business meeting. Below this in from Joan. They are baby barn swallows in Ontario, which are exceedingly cute. They obligingly waited 45 minutes in the forest behind the farm ...

Pizza, Prog & Rockabilly Up with the sparrows and off to London. The sparrows, incidentally, sleep on their backs with their beaks poking from the duvet in a neat row. Spent most of the day writing on a several page brochure about printers. At lunchtime First Matie drove me to Sainsbury's and, on returning, I mumbled on my sandwich and worked on the printer brochure again. Time hibernated. Some 100 years later, I left work the shadow of a man, after Kate had rewritten my brochure to stop it being rubbish. Then a slightly disrupted journey home, but heard from Mex whose important job interview had gone very well. Also heard from Anton, who was sans Anna (on a coaching course). So on returning to Brighton, I sidled up the road, to gorge on Anton's own unbeatable pizzas and polish off some Polish beers. While thus engaged, I also spoke on the phone to the Cat with the Hat, who was pleased with our meeting yesterday, and to Lorraine. Anton and I had an excellent evening, listen...

Sustainable tagliatelle Toby lad's birthday today. I'm looking forward to seeing him back in Blighty soon. Up late this morning feeling a little groggy. Pottered about for a couple of hours before meeting Simon at Brighton Station and we headed up together to Kings Cross, and the Acorn House restaurant. All the Acorn's food is sustainably sourced and is very well cooked too. So there are mackerel and pork and lots of interesting vegetables such as samphire on view. I had pea soup and a light tagliatelle. We were there to meet Pooran Desai OBE who is responsible for the BedZED project, and a new development in Brighton. A very interesting guy, who I may do an interview with shortly. The Cat with the Hat, wearing a brown straw hat today, turned up and we all had a nice meal and several chin-stroking conversations. After a couple of hours of talking we shot off to Victoria, where I met Mex for a cheeky beer and a pizza. (Fortunately I'd only grazed at lunch). Lots of new...

Yellas Below My old pal Nev pictured painting yellas upside down in Australia. "I've still got the skills!" he says. As a very senior and talented art director when people asked him what he did outside of an agency context, he would persistently say that he painted yellas (ie painted yellow lines on the road). I don't know where he got this from. I stole Nev's line from him once to excellent effect. I was sitting in the front row with Mex and two other friends at a comedy venue in Chiswick. Some obnoxious Scottish comedian came on and started berating everyone for being English and middle class, with poncey London jobs. As I was sitting right at the front he seized on me as his first victim. "And what do you do?" Me, borrowing Nev's line (and sensibly not explaining that I was, uh, a creative in an advertising agency) said: "Paint yellas." "What are yellas?" "You know. Double yellas, single yellas..." One-nil to me. Muc...

Herons and cyberstars Up to the smoke today. Went to see Mum and Mase to hang out chatting and eating tuna sandwiches and apple strudel mit ice cream. Discussing such things as their next door neighbour who is painting a dead tree in their garden brown. He has concrete dogs which he waters too. Each to his own. Mum and I then discussed the children's book project we're working on. Using her artistic skills she is going to make me rich and famous beyond my wildest imaginings. Heh-heh. Mum and I went off then on the bus and had a bit of a ramble across several fields near Elstree in the sun and cold wind, while Mase did some ghastly things to do with tax. Mum is going to have her operation on the 30th and we were planning various strategies. I will hang out with Mase off and on while she is in hospital, and maybe afterwards when Mum is recovering at home. We saw a nice heron at one point very close. At first Mum thought it was a sculpture of a heron (one of the many scattered acr...

A sustainable life Productive Monday. Up early, and did a telephone interview at 10, where I spoke to Brighton's splendidly-named sustainable development guru Thurstan Crockett, about the forthcoming festival and what's going on in Brighton. Pleased to learn that Brighton won Forum for the Future award last year for its sustainability initiatives. I cleverly (but somewhat tangentially) steered the conversation onto gulls, and explained my theory that there were two tribes in Brighton: The People and The Gulls. He wanted to go on record that gulls were much maligned. Hmm. I thought. Tell that to the one that got its thieving beak into Electra's noodles the other week. As Thurstan had worked as a journalist it made the interview very easy and I'd blasted the article out by noon. Really interesting guy. Then focused on my Pamphlet project, now called i love you. I have reworked it, completed the proposal and other bits and there was nothing more to do with it other than se...

Official: I am not attention seeking It's not often I say a stern "no" to attention, but I had to today. Was approached by someone writing an article for the women's section of The Observer called the Ex Files. This allows you and an ex to discuss, for the benefit of its female readership, why your relationship ended, and what you learned from it. Apparently, the pitch went, people can find this therapeutic. So I eagerly forwarded it to Mex for her opinion. I went for a late lunchtime walk and, thinking about it, it suddenly dawned on me that I would rather plunge knitting needles deep in my own eye sockets than be part of it. When I got home there was a note from Mex saying much the same. What was I thinking? Otherwise I worked on my new poem, provisionally called The Moth Display, and felt tremendously cheerful. In the evening popped up to Victoria for another enjoyable and funny evening with New Biz Liz. Had quite a few drinks and then we went to strap on a Sri Lan...

Red drips from the stone The agency is squeezing the last blood out of the stone. I'm having to finish lots of work, and am still taking a lead role in talking to our clients. I attended a meeting where I was supposed to just be there as a backup, but had to take control for a while as it suddenly went a bit awry. The graveyards are full of indispensable people of course, but it makes me wonder what will happen... I found time, however, to sneak off for a 40 minute swim. After swimming at the pool for many years, you get to know some of the regulars. The man with dyed red hair said hello to me today after three or four years of swimming up and down in the next lane to me. After work, I had a chat and a swift beer with a freelance colleague called Rory. He is flying back to Australia this weekend, and his descriptions of beach hut life back home were full of longing. As we looked out at the dark, with him conjuring an Australian summer in a beach hut full of cheery mates brandishing...

Friday in the company of ladies A cheery Friday. I am still quite quiet at work, and was tempted out for lunch by Max the Mentor. Went to the Distillers which is fast becoming the agency pub since reopening and once inside we chatted to all and sundry. Max took me into a local cobblers, and did some shoe business. She told me she was wearing a pair of Jimmy Choo shoes which she said had cost a fortune. They were nice greeny multicoloured things and, admiring them, I felt I had stepped accidentally into an episode of Sex in the City as one of the gay best friends. After work I met Mex my ex-wife, in Victoria and had a nice time catching up. Her fame is growing and she will be on TV again soon. And her website been nominated for the Bloggies . All richly deserved. She seems to be keeping incredibly busy, and it was good to see her. During the day I was delighted to get a call from the very nice indeed Sarah to thank me for flowers I had sent her, as I had missed her recent birthday. She...

A night out with my ex-wife Another work frenzy today. The Gnome and me under the cosh most of the time. I will have to go off to somewhere near Manchester to do a pitch on Monday. Originally there was talk of catching a Nazgul from Gatwick airport and flying there. But it will now be a hideously early train ride. Left work at 7:30 however and met Mex, my ex-wife, in the trusty Blue Anchor. We hadn't seen each other for well over a year. We seem to have got to the stage where it's like meeting up with a really good old friend. Had lots of catching up to do, which we did over a couple of drinks followed by a tasty thali in the Agni. She has another book on the way also about the tube, and is doing well working at Yahoo, where she gets to do things like go to conventions of blogging women and so on. She has also moved back to Kew, not too far from where we used to live. It was really nice to see her. Slept on the train back home, and woke groggily in Brighton.