Meals of Ibuprofen and Chocolate Milkshake

A week in to the new year. Seems like an age since last weekend; a Saturday of sleep, and a long Sunday walk with Em along that moon-ish half circle that is the boundary of Brighton. Strange countryside there. Odd strips of wood and tangled waste ground, scrubby recreation grounds, and everywhere the constant shrill shriek of the ring road. Then that strange grey Monday, walking along the seafront listening to Electric Wizard's new album, wondering what Hove Lagoon would look like now. Like all those places of last autumn, the roads beyond the Old Shoreham Road, the Engineerium, I can't believe that they could survive into the new year.

A return to work and the arrival of a savage sore throat. Mild illness turning everything slightly surreal, meals of ibuprofen and chocolate milkshake. Disturbed but somehow restful sleep. Tuesday night, an endless sequence of half dreams that stretched until morning. Twin Peaks (watching the first series with Em at the moment). Different shots of different plot stands, translated as characters standing on different sides of the same hill, till finally the same characters were split in two seemingly. Different points in time taking place on the brow of the hill at the same point.
These impossibilities made sense when I dreamt them.
A revelatory absurdity.
Last night, my throat was particularly bad. Crept into my dreams. Another television series this time. Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Buffy infected by some vampiric throat disorder. Her tongue disengaging itself, curling round in her mouth like a snake. Unpleasant imagery, and when I woke it felt like a snake was curled in my throat for I could not swallow without pain.
A glass of water and I felt better.

The nights are January-black, but the days have an odd lightness about them, like those first few warm-ish days of spring. Sat with Mark at the beach at lunchtime. Warm enough in the sun.
Yesterday, it seemed that it had gotten darker considerably later.
Nightfall slipping back. The year, already, creeping on.