under another sun

A slow morning. Lorraine and I had another cheeky game of boules, another close game. Breakfast, the little boy full of sunshine.  Lorraine and I had some time in Sées. A beautiful little town, or perhaps a city as there is a cathedral and a bishop. We walked about in the gothic Cathedral, built between 1210 and 1310. You feel a bit like an ant walking in there, dwarfed by the majesty of divinely-inspired architecture.  Some gorgeous glass in there too. I was looking at the a list of war dead, and struck by the word Disparus for missing.  Then across the road to a lovely Patisserie where we bought some pastries, and baguettes. I ate an apple pastry, buttery flaky pastry, with sweet cooked apple in the middle. Absolutely delicious. We nosed in several shops and then popped into the supermarket for assorted treats, and headed home.  Pleased with myself that I tried to stick to French. In fact later, we were talking to Charlie, whose English is worse than my French and ...

Up at a hideous five thirty and dragged myself out of bed into a rainy world. We left at six thirty, but not before Lorraine had watered the cucumbers. Arrived at Newhaven a few minutes later, with James and Beth already in the line of cars.  Waited there for about an hour before we were allowed to drive into The Seven Sisters. I'd been a bit apprehensive as I knew the weather was a bit stormy, but the boat only rolled a little gently.  We all found ourselves a pleasant place to sit, and had a really enjoyable trans manche experience. I went outside as we left, standing on a piece of deck with one or two others, looking at Newhaven and the grey sea and sky. Nice to see Seaford Head and the Seven Sisters from the sea.  We had cups of tea and some food, but the game changer was a chocolate and coffee drink which suddenly made me feel perky. Also heard on the journey from Lou, who told me that First Matie was improved today, and the doctors were more optimistic, which made m...

Norman morning Up early and working on headlines for my French client before eight. A small part of what I was writing referred to the Festival of Impressionism in Normandy this summer. Looking at some Claude Monet, and drinking in the sunshine of another century for a few minutes. At noon I was all done with French copy, and I bolted outside. Still despicable underfoot, but made it as far as the supermarket where I panic bought three packs of Quorn sausages and some catfood. In the afternoon recorded myself reading the first bit of This concert will fall in love with you . Matt had gently nudged me by text. Despite the fact he only wanted a rough guide, it took twelve attempts and I was a bus ride away from being happy with the results. Downloaded Crazy Talk software, which Lorraine suggested to me. You can use it to animate paintings and so on. Investigating ways of bringing Skelton Yawngrave to life. But it seems to be a world of fun. A Twin Peaks fix tonight. Got to the point now w...