under another sun

Up and at em today, wearing my new teeshirt.  We had planned to have Jess and Andrew around today, but they had to cry off having been exposed to a grandchild with a temperature. Otherwise did general tidying and so on. Lorraine needing a bit of a recharging day. Beth and her new pal James came around this evening. Beth wanted lager, and as we had none, I popped into the off licence nearby, telling the owner through my facemask that I was pleased it was warming up again (it is going to be warm for a few days) as there is a race between me and the snails for my tomatoes before they ripen. The bloke at some distance behind me said his money was on the snails. A cheery evening. A Shahi curry delivered, and played a bit of Euchre. James, not really a card player, was a bit bamboozled by the right and left bower business -- as it has bamboozled many before him.  Pow! Me with mad hair and a powerful new teeshirt.

Up a smidge before noon, having had tea and breakfast in bed. A few bits and pieces around the house, and then Lorraine and I bused into town to go to Marks and Sparks to buy some bits for Janet. Then we walked along the seafront to Hove, where we popped in for an hour. Hus, sleeping in the spare room, but Janet and Ken both up.  Janet in good spirits today and Lorraine helped her onto the chaise lounge that her mum Maggie, who I knew well, had bought her when she passed her PhD. By the time we had reached Hove the clouds had gone and it was a perfect blue sky. After seeing Janet and Ken, we went around the corner to Caffe Nero where we met Beth for a coffee and a catch up, before jumping on the bus home. There we discussed plans for reorganising one of the bedrooms into a studio, where Lorraine can do embroidery, jigsaws and so on, and I can do stained glass and art. It's part of a vision that is an alternative to sitting about watching TV in the evening. Sometimes TV must b...

Anton around this morning to discuss Educational matters with Lorraine, and help himself to a couple of enlivening coffees. Once he'd zoomed off the pottering began. I did some in the garden. I mowed the lawn, that was moist and long. Lorraine and I pulled a few weeds up, and trimmed back a few plants, and sat in the hot sun in the corner of the garden drinking coffee watching a snail progress at speed towards the vegetation. The the first mongol of the ravaging horde. Then I did some business admin stuff, and Lorraine did a bit of headteacher stuff. Spoke to Mum and Mas. Had a delicious Sunday roast dinner and then headed for bed early, after a spot of ironing. The very stuff exciting blog narratives are made of.

Lorraine working from home. I had time to work on some poetry, struggling with a poem I've never quite got right for part of a Telltale sampler, but sent it to Robin who saw the flaw right away, and the poem is now greatly improved. Lorraine and I had lunch in the sun in our back garden, thankfully no longer haunted by the smells of rotting snail flesh. A couple of weeks ago, momentarily infuriated by the snails and slugs eating all our beans, plums and so on I prepared a deadly bucket of salty water, which I used to murder gastropods using my superior speed and intellect. When I went out into the garden yesterday I was struck by an unusually penetrating smell, which I traced to the ghastly bucket. I poured the stinking water down the drain, which I had to fill with bleach afterwards to make it slightly more acceptable, and then what to do with the corpses? I tipped them, in a rattle of shells, over the low wall at the back of the wildly overgrown and unused garden of the unsee...

Up somewhat blearily. Lorraine up early and bringing tea and porridge back to the bedroom. A day of doing bits and pieces for me, including a spot of cow work for my French clients, and quoting on another job to do with the Plight of Balkan Dogs. To the gym too, to do half an hour on the cross trainer, a.k.a. the hulk legs machine, as I have noticed what with me tearing my thigh muscle and other afflictions my legs seem far more sparrowy than normal. Then Sainsburys to buy vegetables to complement the excellent tomato harvest from our back garden, plus a decent portion of green beans I wrested from the craven gastropods outside. Their name gives it away. They are walking stomachs and I bite my thumb at them. I cooked a rather nice vegetable and fish and rice meal tonight. Healthy stuff after the beery chip-based excesses of the weekend. Calliope punishing my absence by pointlessly hiding in the dungeon when I was doing laundry down there, plaguing me at my desk and finding things...

The Sunday gardener Working on my The Moth Display poem first thing, then after some time spent mainly wanting to bang my head on the table, stopped. I also explained at length my new vision to Lorraine: 4 stone lighter the Peter Kenny way . Stage one involves lots of positive visualisation about what being 4 stone lighter would be like, and then stage two is to spurn & reject food. Simple but brilliant. After a small bowl of muesli, and me refreshing her on key points of my plan, Lorraine suggested that we do some work in my garden. Then she drove us off to a garden centre in the afternoon just the other side of the downs, where I bought a few plants that can endure a shady corner of a Twitten snail sanctuary. Garden centre doing enormous business, and it's hard not to go mad in there and return with an English jungle in the boot. Noticed it was quite a day out for the old folks too, who seemed to be enjoying its cafe and browsing happily among the busy lizzies. Home, and unde...

Snails and spreadsheets Drenched this morning, caught in a downpour with an umbrella the size of a dinner plate. Bah. However a very good day getting on top of my business stuff. Found all the figures for rates, utilities and other payments which can be claimed back and emailed them to my glamorous accountant - finding them put years on me. Also making spreadsheets. There is something sexy about spreadsheets. The fact that you can put stuff in rows and columns and so on. Organised, that's what it is. Also did a cheeky bit of writing work for my French client and the prospect of more on the horizon. So all in all a good and productive day which makes me feel on top of things. I also mistakenly made a layer pie, which I ate the majority of. Once it had stopped raining, and I had done all my work, I poked about in the snail sanctuary that is my back yard, and tidied and put clippings into bin liners. Picked up one particularly large snail and threw it into the Twitten in disgust. Noti...