under another sun

May the first... Up and working at eight, recording with Robin, then spent much of the day editing. Nice to chat to her, and she was as ever, encouraging after my two shortlisting and getting nowhere. Still getting the time-lag problem, and I had to reboot wifi and computer halfway through.  Lorraine off to do Rhymetime, and then she spent the rest of the day with Beth, who had taken the day off. At the end of the day,  I walked across the back of Seaford to Beth's house, where I found her in the enormous back garden with a large net, scooping sludge up from the bottom of the koi pond. She had also been mowing the lawn. She is changing. Lorraine had been gardening with her too. They'd had a really fun time together. James on a cycling holiday around Spain. I met Micky, the cat, for the first time. A frisky little tabby, who is clearly besotted with Beth. Beth and I were standing outside when Lorraine and I were leaving, and Micky was looking at us, with what Beth says is look ...

A spot of shopping with Lorraine in Seaford, plus a big supermarket food shop. I popped into Gallery Uno, and they were very friendly, and bought Lorraine a little ceramic heart thingy and also some earrings from another place, to supplement the presents I had bought her ahead of time in Brighton a week ago. This evening met Anton in Steamworks, to swap a bag of presents and have a cheeky beer. Trains not working, so he had to catch a bus over to Seaford. Really nice just to chill out a bit, right a few wrongs with the world and play a game of bones in the pub. After Lorraine had taken care of Pat and Maureen, we were joined by Lorraine, and together we mooched off to Spice Village, where we had a  surprisingly delicious curry. Felt very holiday-ish. Left Anton standing at a bus stop and sloped home. 

Woke up alive, which is nice. I had taken my statin the night before, and so far have experienced no ill effects. Some good writing this morning, in peace as Dan and Greg had finished yesterday, and Lorraine was out for the morning. The sudden sodden whacking of the window cleaner's extendible pole brush kept me on my toes.  I did some decent writing, still fashioning the poetry MS, and then made off to the gym for the third time this week, however after a bit of mooching about with weights I pushed a bit too hard on the cross trainer, and had to sit down after for a bit of a rest. Mooched home, and Lorraine back from seeing her personal trainer. Took a moment for a meditation, and afterwards Lorraine wrote Dwell happily in the present on our blackboard. We started to tidy up a bit, and were distracted by a metallic whacking, which we thought was the builders next door, but it turned out to be the effing evil seagull again, whacking up kibbles from the cat bowls. Rosie called arou...

Lorraine off to meet Adele for coffee, I meanwhile continued writing my new short story, which for all kinds of complicated reasons is called Kansas . Writing in flow state. There is nothing like it.  Also firming up two potential guests for the podcast. In the afternoon we did some gardening together, and in the evening we simply took ourselves out for a curry in Seaford in a recently opened restaurant called Spice Village . This was fairly empty, but was the best Indian food I'd had in Seaford washed down with the obligatory bottles of Cobra beer. I'd revisit without a qualm. We were put in a little booth, which was nice as the place lacked a bit of atmosphere but the friendliness of the staff certainly ensured a cheery time.  Then we walked home along by the sea just after the sea had set. A full pink moon hanging in the air next to Seaford Head, and looking back towards Newhaven the sea was lined with anglers. Quite magical.