I’ve been out drawing most mornings this week so I haven’t had a chance to write this journal, hence the long list of things to remember to mention.
On Tuesday our boiler went funny, flashing a symbol AU. Look in the book, he said. I did and it was something to do with it not being able to find the flame. I remember the old days when you just relit the pilot light. Not now. We both hate it when people have to come in. It makes us edgy. Always. He came eventually. He’d been here before, he remembered. I remembered too. A nice man, young and handsome. We ate supper while he fiddled around, eventually bringing out a small board with three what looked like spark plugs fixed to it. See this, he says pointing to one of them. Yes, I said, with my mouth full of salad. It’s worn down and can’t locate the flame and tell these other ones that there is one (I’m paraphrasing, I think that is what he said.). I can fix it for now, but it may go again, and if it does at least you will know what it is. Yes, I said. And there was I planning to fill my morning bath with water from the kettle. I love practical people. What a star and hardly a dirty footprint anywhere.
The day before his coming hadn’t gone well. I was desperate for a good morning’s drawing in the coffee shop but when we got there it was all shut up and dark. Where now? we said to each other. We went to Costa – no good. Then to Wetherspoons, or ‘The Spoons’ – yuck! I even asked for our money back the drinks were so dire. And then Caesars. Better but I had too much tea. That looks very artistic, said the waitress looking down at my sketchbook. So does your arm, I said, diverting the attention away from me and my not so good drawings. Oh, do you like them? she asked. It gets rather addictive after a while, she says, I’ve got them all down my back as well. Our favourite coffee shop eventually opened at 10.00 where I had another tea and tried to make some decent drawings but things had unravelled.
The moon was huge this morning. I heard myself say wow as I turned into Bridge Street and saw it looming over the harbour. Is it a wolf moon? Later, walking along the Prom I happened to look down onto the beach just below Castle Point. There was a double bed down there, base and mattress. It was unmade but looked pretty pristine. A jolly jape, perhaps? I said at breakfast.
