Monday

Yesterday - I'd forgotten that friends from Liverpool had arranged to be in Brighton and London for a few days and I'd arranged to meet up - so just after lunch I had to dash along the coast to meet them. On the train there, a depressingly dim pair of yummy mummies were talking about beauty products in the seats adjacent, for an hour - testing the contents of each others make-up bags "oooh, it's very almondy, isn't it - I like that". At the point where the train passes along the shoreline before we hit Bexhill - they were distracted by the sight of the sea, stretching out towards the Atlantic. "Gosh - it looks very deep". Didn't know what to think of that one.

Brighton itself was backing in sunshine and the afterglow of a large and apparently very busy Gay Pride - the kind of public event I edit out of my consciousness. It seemed that half the town was in bed with a hangover, the other half had drunk themselves sober - and were in the process of drinking themselves drunk again - probably to wash away the pain of being very badly sunburnt. There was enough glow walking about to boost the national grid by about 20%. It was nice to catch up - they live a street away from my old house in Aigburth and I don't get to see them very often.

I'm quite pleased about Peter Capaldi - but I never took him seriously as a contender - I didn't think he had the time, the backlash has already begun 'has he damaged his career' etc.

The article on the radio about producing artificial meat just made me feel physically sick. I'm confused by the assumption that 'non meat' needs to look like 'real meat' to make it marketable - but then I'm sure that some people think beefsteak tomatoes are made from beef. I can understand the argument that millions of people globally go to bed hungry at night - I doubt very much that they care how beefy their faux beef tastes - as long as they get fed wholesome food - and protein rich beef non meat products have been available for decades. There is a posh woman on the radio now talking about home cooking and keeping everything 'natural'. Well. If you can afford it.

Working in-house for a couple of days. Need top do some admin, have quite a lot coming up over the next couple of months - it's all downhill to Christmas now. I bought a copy of Esquire yesterday at the station - reduced to £2.50 as a special offer ( or I wouldn't have bought it ) - it was an Autumn/Winter menswear special - very odd sitting on a sweltering train looking at pictures of men in overcoats. It was also a Kate Moss special - the photograph of her on the cover was seedy to say the least, I stuffed it into my bag with the haste of a man buying pornography in his corner shop.

Being busy for the last few weeks - I've let the house descend into chaos.