under another sun

Up early today, thanks to the persuasions of Brian. I took Jonas and Claudia a cup of tea and Lorraine a hot water with lemon, then later we had breakfast. Jonas and Claudia enjoying Kenny farm tomatoes on toast with cheese. Then Beth came by with Enzo so Claudia and Jonas could meet him.  Then we made off to The Barn on the top of Seaford Head. Lorraine took them to where there was an art exhibition. Palo was there, and Lorraine bumped into Kate and Debbie too. As I was walking down with them, however, walking down I couldn't cross a bit of the hill where there was no cover or trees and felt frozen and overwhelmed by a feeling of exposure. I tried and failed several times to get across and then had to call Lorraine to say I wasn't coming down to the Coastguard Cottages. Instead I did quite a few of the day's paces walking enjoyably around other woody bits. I met them coming up, Lorraine striding ahead as she was worried about me. All was well, however, and we had a coffee ...

Lorraine and I up in the middle of the night to crane our necks out of the velux window in our bathroom. The moon being eclipsed, a thin sliver of moon, then a baleful rest of it. Annoyingly it was just about the least convenient place for the blood super moon to be viewed from our house, but still something of a magical sight. All day working from home, apart from sauntering off down the road to get my Yellow Fever jab, which I was able to receive this time thankfully, and a couple of packets of malaria pills. The same nurse as a few days ago. We got talking about why we are going, and she told me she was an Evangelistic Christian, and that she thought we were living in the End Times. We discussed her faith for a while, and why she had become a Christian.  Back home and back to work, before a relaxed evening in with Lorraine, and Betty and John watching another re-run of Les Revenants . We all like these cool French Zombies and a new series is coming up soon. Meanwhile NASA ha...

Lorraine thankfully not on such an early start so a slower start. Lorraine glimpsed the eclipse through the velux window in the upstairs bathroom and called me up. I looked at the sky for a while and saw nothing, then through a thinning in the cloud I saw the sun's outline with a substantial chunk taken from it for a few seconds. I lined up my iPhone to get a snap but the cloud did not break from that moment till it was all over. The temperature did drop, but it never got absolutely dark, just the kind of lifeless grey typical of England. It is also the spring equinox too, which always makes me feel more lively. A day devoted to Centaur project I am doing with Helen. Bused over to Hove this afternoon and we worked for a few hours together. She has got an amazing amount already written, and music is flowing out of her. Her enthusiasm is infectious. I supplied some more words, and we discussed where they would fit the overall pattern. Also we listened to what she has got down so ...

Troglodyte day Stared balefully at the sky from my study. Above the thick blanket of cloud an ominous partial-eclipse created a new benchmark in grey English mornings. Worked on two French jobs. One turning a Franglais business article into smooth English, while profoundly disagreeing with its contents. This done moved on to work on a job with a useless 'me-too' brief. A brisk lunchtime walk by the sea, trying to figure out the answer to the useless brief. Home again, and in the course of my research found myself looking at ancient cave paintings, which suddenly seemed like the most interesting things in the world. Annoyingly I ended up sketching Peter Kenny cave paintings, as time frittered down the stalactites. Bah to the useless brief. Calls from the lovely Lorraine, who was walking at lunchtime and eating lightly too. It is going to be a long road.