under another sun

Rain and swine flu A proper Monday morning for most, teeming with rain in Brighton. I got up a little before seven, scarfed oats and a large cup of tea and got to work. For one good thing about rain, is that it makes you feel great to be inside in the warm and dry. At eleven I broke off and went out into the rain for a workout in the gym. I used the cross trainer apparatus which is giving Toby legs like the Hulk, and quite enjoyed it. Made me sweaty. Someone nodded at me today in the gym. Naturally, to blend in, I returned their nod with an indifferent stare. I am beginning, just a little, to enjoy it now and feel less self-conscious. Back to work, untangling a chapter of the book most of the afternoon. I'm keeping focused. Heard from Diane, and Lorraine and Bob today. Also from a Canadian writer friend Mark who is going to write a travel book about Europe, which sounds rather a splendid idea. Listening with increasing interest to the news about Swine Flu. Two people have it in Sco...

Pharma in the country No rest for the wicked. Off first thing this morning to a hard to reach location deep in lovely leafy Surrey for a business meeting, to talk about websites and what will be for me a big writing project for a pharmaceutical company. Was picked up in a taxi at Redhill station by a talkative and somewhat sweary Pakistani driver who had just returned from a month at home. I asked him about what things were like there at the moment. He said little about it, but he was extremely anti-US and thought that the new election wouldn't make any difference to its foreign policy. Meanwhile we drove through roads lined dripping with autumn gold. Lovely. The meeting was fine, and over pretty quickly. Nice folks from the pharma company, and the people from an internet company saying Very Obvious Things Very Seriously. And I said a few Very Obvious Things back, and everyone happy. Equally talkative lady drove me back to the station telling me all about Mexico. She never left her...

TV. It's big and clever A lovely day in which I felt still felt a bit dodgy gutted and tired. Sloped off to have an exceedingly overdue haircut, and after waving at Anna who was in her car, bumped into Anton and the bairns near his house and I popped in for a glass of water and a chat before returning home to sleep. Feeling somewhat refreshed in the evening I had a TV fest. Enjoyed a wonderful documentary about Moctezuma by the novelist DBC Pierre, who had lived in Mexico as a child and teenager. Strange combination of personal history combined with the history of the Spaniards encounter with Moctezuma. Retelling the idea that the astrologers had predicted the return of Quetzalcoatl from the east sporting a beard. When the Spaniards turned up at that exact time it produced a superstitious paralysis in Moctezuma which allowed the Spaniards to prevail. I went to Mexico for three weeks with my ex-wife some time ago, and I recognised several of the places in the documentary including t...