under another sun

Recommenced my statins last night, and despite feeling sluggish this morning, felt okay as the day progressed. Lorraine was up early and brought me a lovely cup of tea in bed, at 7:30 which was marvellous.  Slogged all day with Keith, except for a meeting with Gabriel. My weird lethargy seems to be abating a bit, and I felt a bit more functional today. Meditated with Lorraine at lunchtime. After I was done with work late in the afternoon, I mooched out into the garden and did yard work for a couple of hours, things like cleaning the barbecue, and sweeping the patio, and stripping off bits of lavender to create cuttings, and pulling off bindweed, feeding the fish and so on.  Clare Best asked me to be MC at her London book launch reading, which was very flattering. Lovely healthy salad again tonight, including Kenny farm cucumbers. I went for a walk after dinner and made a disastrous choice of walking alongside a field, a walk I had done two or three times earlier in the year. N...

Japanese tea in bed, followed by English tea with milk and honey. Eventually we got up for breakfast and with a large side dish of grown up conversations about which plumber to use to replace our boiler. Then to the concrete bit at the bottom of the garden to bolt together things inside the glasshouse -- the bench and the metal frame to be used as a bed inside the structure. Still just above freezing, so lots of clothes layers needed. After an avocado based lunch,  Lorraine drove back to Ashford. Sorry to see her going again. I kissed her goodbye then went into the kitchen. The Alexa speaker suddenly came on of its own accord, with a voice talking about gut health. I opened the front door to say she was haunting me, but she had already left.   A walk along the seafront. Mixed feelings. A bit fed up that our January has not gone according to plan, and Lorraine and I have spent much of it apart. However, I decided to focus on the good things, such as being  grateful for bei...

Up hideously early to go to the dentist in London. Arrived at icy Seaford station at 06:50, but there was no train for over an hour -- either as a hangover from the strike yesterday, and later this week or the icy rails or both. There was no way I would make my appointment on time. Gah. I had to cancel the  appointment and sheepishly blame the trains. Home again, I took Lorraine a cup of tea up and decided make an early start on the concepting work for mes amis in Paris, plus writing the copy for the latest podcast which was uploaded today and featured an interview Robin had with Matthew Stewart, plus bloopers and other general banter. At my desk an overnight rejection from the agency in New York. No surprise there.  Working all day, but a very happy day. Sent the copy that Tim Relf had written for his bit about Planet Poetry in Poetry News. Lorraine up early and excitedly. A man came shortly after the sun rose, to assemble the glasshouse in the garden. He had driven from Nor...