New Times

Good news from relatives on Friday night; looks as though a new addition to the family will be joining us in November. No-one mentioned issues of citizenship, possibly because there's nothing to know yet, though the overjoyed parents are trying to work out names that sound good in both English and Spanish.

And after that, the weekend cruised past with ease. Our holidays were arranged... after thoughts of Morocco and Estonia, we settled on the Loire Valley;together with Rome and visiting Mum, it's going to be all about Europe til we go to Oz again.

And last night? Strange ideas for new manuscripts filtered through my head, I don't know if I could make them work. I can't work out a pitch to make them sound good, so perhaps they're not. But one at least is a very different idea, I have never heard of anyone writing anything like it.

Sleep has been excellent, until last night; strange dreams about [G] testing me on the whereabouts of planets in the sky; I could only get the sun and moon correct with certainty. We were under a duvet for some reason. I recall noticing [G] had no clothes on; it was all perfectly safe and respectable. Whimsy turned up too. In real life I have matters that need to be discussed with her.

My mood stays sanguine until I read the papers. May will probably trigger article 50 this week, and I suspect Sturgeon will call for another Scottish referendum at some point. I have always been against Scottish independence out of sentimentality and a real worry about Scotland's economy; Salmond's claim that Scotland could be independent and yet still tied to the BoE's pound seemed like a non-sequitur to me. Obviously they could use the currency, but what's independence without control over the money? But given what is happening to England, more, given May's hostility to voices that disagree and simple expectation of silent obedience from Sotland, N.I, and Gibraltar, I wouldn't be surprised if it happens.