under another sun

Many small tasks today, and none of them paying. Up early and sent a speculative MS off to a magazine, then podcast business, getting our new episode uploaded and publicised on social meeja with my interview with J.O. Morgan .  Got Sam out of bed to go to a meeting in town. Syringed thyroid medication down Calliope's throat. Conversations with Estate agents during the day. Now well over a dozen viewings scheduled for our house for our open day on Saturday. Also chasing ones in Seaford, including about the complicated house we love. Worrying about tax a bit when Keith reminded me that as I have reverted to being self employed, I will effectively be double taxed in for the first year. As my first year was good, it means I am going to have to find a lots of money.  No problem if I keep earning, but slightly alarming now I have gone very quiet very quiet.  I have saved money but the idea of handing it all over is a bit galling after slogging so hard. Keith and I  getting...

Up with Lorraine and was at my desk at 7:30 when Lorraine left. Feeling anxious this morning, like there was a fire alarm going off in one of the rooms but you can never get to it. However I managed to take Pat and Maureen some tea in bed, then nipped around the corner to get some chewy brown bread for Maureen to take back with her.  Plumbers due between 10 and half past, so making sure they were breakfasted before then. The plumber and his mate were late, of course, and meanwhile I had been phoned by Val with an urgent job to turn around. Managed to do this while the plumber was raging his innocence "100%, on my kid's life" etc. on his speaker phone, taking repeated calls about a job that hadn't gone quite right before. Sent back the French work rapidly, then immediately wished I had spent more time on it. The plumbers finished their job, replacing a radiator in the kitchen, and all was good. Beth had come around, as she had been to Lorraine's school to receive...

Up early because of Plumbers, who did not turn up immediately. Had breakfast with Toby who was now heading off to Aberystwyth, a bit of an epic rail journey via London and Birmingham.  Sad to see him go, but we will hook up next week. No water this morning, as there was a burst water main just down the road. Took a few hours to sort out. Plumbers arrived, and finally finished installing the shower. An electrician is coming next Friday, just for one or two bits, but it is done. It looks good too. Only took 'em four weeks. In the afternoon, once we were free of workmen, and Sonia had arrived, we made off to Hassocks garden centre and bought Lorraine the sun lounger she had been craving. Then home. The sky looking somewhat suspect, and a bit of a wind gathering. We took he sun lounger out onto the decking, and soon it was thundering and raining hard, for the first time in over 50 days. In the evening off to a drink to celebrate Innis's birthday, at the Bottom's Rest.  ...

Waiting for Alex the tiler who did not come today. In my mind I changed his name to Wat Tyler. Also chasing the plumber, who doesn't return my calls. Time-consuming and frustrating which, despite my best efforts, puts me into a bad mood. This not at all helpful for writing, although I did manage to fix some of the damage I had done to three new poems by reverting to their earlier versions, and I also cut the hedge. And did some reading. It's come to something when these things feel like your only accomplishments of the day. I have had a golden opportunity to write, since we returned from Spain, but on most days I've been disrupted, if not by noise and people, by having to wait at home for people who don't arrive. Lorraine working late tonight. I watched some TV, a documentary about Joan Didion on Netflix. I read her book about her bereavement, A Year of Magical Thinking, which I was a bit so-so about, but the documentary made me want to reconsider her. Tom arrived l...

Waiting for plumbers who arrived this afternoon, to install the second replacement of the shower tray.  This one duly inspected by me and seems to be fine. They went away, and now it is the turn of the tiler. Again, all this disruptive. When I do get the opportunity to think, I'm not working well at present. Still, I went for another pleasant walk this afternoon up around Hollingbury Hillfort. Spoke to Mum, and Ben was there looking at the computer virus software. Mason had given his credit card to a bogus Microsoft caller from India, and so they had to spend the day cancelling cards. The fraudsters tried to extract money from the bank, but luckily the bank would not release it. So no harm done in the end, thank goodness. Home and ate outside with Lorraine of salad and roast chicken of my own devising. Below on the ridge east of the Hollingbury golf course, and a view down into Brighton, with the i360 (iSore) and the Rampion wind farm on the horizon.

Up early and to tell the plumbers we don't want plastic. The stuff should be here on Monday, and the installation can resume, I hope, now into its third week. As yesterday, trying to work with little avail, while waiting for plumbers to get back to me and so on. A nice chat with Sonia, and I went for a walk for an hour and three quarters, and felt a good deal better for that. Listening to The Painted Veil   by W. Somerset Maugham. For some reason I have never read Maugham before. Orwell admired him, and I can see why. There is a coldness and clarity about his writing. Nice to be out and about, but still very hot. Thunder here and there in Southern England, not not a spot of rain here. It is now clearly a drought. Meanwhile Trump is in England. Felt bad I did not go to the protests in London, in some ways. But keyboard warrior that I am I put something on facebook and twitter. The ignorant narcissistic Trump was a disgrace, contradicting himself, in his usual modus operandi, ...

Poop poop! Beth passed her driving test today. She called me, extremely happy, shortly after. She did it with only two minors, which apparently is excellent. Very happy for her. Plumbers here all day. They turned up early this morning, (I'd been expecting them in the afternoon) and nice blokes. They are dismantling everything in our en suite, taking away the shower that doesn't work, the bath tub that you cannot have a bath in, the broken sink and the broken toilet. All is well. Obviously this is great to do, but completely disruptive. I was able to do some pretty good thinking once they'd left however. Cooked, and a short walk around the block and sat outside in the sun for a while. When Lorraine came back we sat outside, and ate in the sun. Very hot come bedtime, and Calliope woke us up shortly after we went to bed, with a live frog hopping about, and Calliope nastying it. Betty's excellent driving instructor Dawn took this snap of her newly qualified pupil. ...

Feeling much better than the weekend now. Two plumbers arrived. Who after telling me it was a job of about three hours, soon had found the work done by the previous owner was a botch. The plumber explained why, and it was clearly legitimate. The fix would require lots more work, which cannot be completed today, and they weren't able to get back to it for till after easter. Nevertheless lots of banging and hammering and crashing and prep work to disrupt the morning. Beth back armed with bread and ham, and we had a bite together talking about play things among other bits before she zoomed off again. Spent the day getting my computer sorted out, transferring files and so on. It looks fab and is a joy to use. Then a man came about the carpet, onto which Calliope (still in the dog house) had kicked a cup of hot coffee staining the brand new carpet. Beth had gone into the shop and they said it was to do with the temperature of the liquid. A loquacious carpet cleaning man came around ...

Nightmares have returned, which I think are triggered somehow by the antibiotics. Since I was a child I have dreamed about tornadoes, and in my dream I was walking through a post apocalyptic city, crawling into some kind of broken carriage or freight container and then lofted high into the sky by twisting black clouds. Unnecessary. As is Brian's new 4 am trick of returning to the house and miaowing at two-second intervals downstairs, then up the stairs and then into the bedroom, where Lorraine asks him what's wrong and he goes suddenly quiet. Kept a low profile today, but thinking hard about the relationships between brands and creative territories for  the business book, and listening to my  Seasons in the Sun audiobook again. Emails with Sophie and Matty boy, and a nice chat with Bob. Decked the Christmas tree with lights, and turned them on just before Lorraine came home. They didn't work, which Lorraine said was a schoolboy mistake as I hadn't checked t...