Saturday to Saturday

Saturday 12th January 2013

Stupid fucking bus! Two minutes! If he’d been two minutes earlier I’d have made my connection for Gateshead. Despite the weather predictions, there’s no fucking snow. No fucking ice, either. Any fucking excuse. So now I have twenty five minutes layover till the 45 Newcastle bus comes.

The station temporarily fills with a whole bunch of bright young things. Green hooded back-packers, tattooed lumberjack shirt wearing beanpole teenagers in burgundy beanies. An old woman taking incessantly to herself, filling the air with babble. The seats are metal. Not the best surface to plonk your arse on this time of year but the kids are tough. Skinny-jeaned youths with hands rammed crotchwards into pockets. “Don’t whistle at me!” says a prim girl in the wrong town. The light of the taxi turning in car park blinds momentarily. The shrill laughter dies away and we’re back to just waiting, waiting…

I have my largest suitcase with me full of laundry, food and my shoulder bag of work stuff. Pleased to get an invite to submit poems to an online blog as a result of my York gig last December. Good to have more time in the first few months of 2013 to work on my chapbook. Didn’t get much work done this afternoon. Pissed about with bindings and costings and layout of existing pages. Nice to get out of Consett for a while and see Jenni. Great to get another futuristic modified pic of me from Kevin Cadwallender as well. 10.42pm.

 Sunday 13th January 2013

On lazy Sunday you can shovel curry into your face, have big cuddles and watch a B-movie about invading space Nazis, drink lemon juice and listen to Queen, The Clash, The Cure, David Bowie and Elvis on Spotify whilst surfing the net for stereo cassette recorders you’ll never buy. Nice to dream and browse for things we won’t need from the comfort of the futon without obligation. Food, fun and frivolity. Then an episode of Taggart on dvd. That’s it, really. 11.20pm.

Monday 14th January 2014

Up early at Jenni’s so we could be ready and over to the Jazz Café for half nine. A New Orleans jazz funeral was a very fitting and deserved send off for Keith Crombie, the closest to a state funeral many people of Newcastle will ever see. The procession through the city was huge and the church was full.

Got home at half one to a freezing house. Was an hour before I could begin typing. You can only spend so long on workshop prep before your head feels like it’s going to explode. Have quite a lot of stuff lined up for tomorrow’s Writing for All but the weather is forecast to be bad so turn-out might be low – which means we’ll get through more material. I thought I was finished work about an hour ago but ended up doing a lot of unforeseen necessary correspondence.  I would like to get an early night. Or at least early into bed and maybe read a while.  

Was tempted to pre-order the new Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds album this evening. There’s a deluxe edition with cd, dvd, vinyl, 2 seven inch singles and a 120 page book of notes on the creation of the songs. But it’s a made-to-order for ninety quid job. Not sure my austerity budget would recover from such an extravagant purchase. Maybe the £16.99 limited edition instead. 10.22pm.

Tuesday 15th January 2013

Great listening to Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds again this evening. The Boatman’s Call is a superb album. Brings back some memories. Used to play a cassette of this downstairs  at the drop-leaf table whilst working up journal entries on a manual portable typewriter and making one-off books as birthday gifts for friends whilst recovering from a breakdown.

Today was the first day back at Waddy. Think the weather might have put a few people off. Had a good sessions anyway. Took a while to get home coz the 4.00pm bus didn’t turn up. Spoke to Jenni on the phone for a while then had fish and microwave chips for tea.

Still working away on book stuff and promo for upcoming events. But I’ve been on the go for about twelve hours now. Was good to get a copy of the new Poetry Review from Waddy this afternoon. Good to see a poem by Valerie Laws in there. My head is starting to hurt a bit. Red Right Hand from Let Love In on Spotify now. Fucking brilliant! 10.18pm.

Wednesday 15th January 2013

Another long day. Only a two hour session at Waddy, which went extremely well, but a six hour round trip. Freezing cold again but don’t think it was quite as low as minus two degrees forecasted. Could be wrong, of course. Jenni asked if she could come over this evening. She’s been downstairs watching a BBC documentary on corporate comedy gigs. Talk about lucrative. Forty grand for a half-hour set. And people say community artist fees are high. Spent much of the evening re-editing bit and pieces of prose for my forthcoming chapbook. Still no end in sight. You start out with the idea of a simple little interim booklet and then the critical brain kicks in and you prune and poke and prod and seem to go round in circles. Really tired now. Could do with an early night. Want to be back at Waddy quite early tomorrow in hopes of encouraging newbies to try the writing courses. Haven’t listened to any music this evening. Jenni has been quiet as well. Think we’re going to see Les Miserables tomorrow. 10.07pm.

Thursday 17th January 2013

Woke about half five and didn’t sleep much more. Ten past eight mini-link to Consett. Walked round Home Bargains and spent my last silver on a 500ml bottle of pineapple juice. Durham bus was freezing. Took me twenty minutes to thaw out at Waddy.  A bit awkward trying to get people signed on courses but a couple did. Stayed the whole day but fell asleep in the lounge this afternoon. Three full-on Waddy days is probably enough for me. Had pizza and chips with Jenni  for tea then out to the Empire to see Les Miserables. It was very good. I’m not a super fan like Jenni and had no previous production to compare it to. My backside was killing by the end. Two and a half hours is a bit long for me but it was an incredible film. A lot of people were crying. I didn’t. Beckett got me more in ’99. Had a drink in the company row afterwards and last bus home. It’s really cold and set to get much worse. 11.20pm.

Friday 18th January 2013

Surprise phone call from Moorside Surgery had me round to the pharmacy for antibiotics to treat an infection I didn’t know I had. The highlight of my Consett shopping trip had to be the altercation between ‘customer’ and cashier at Lloyds TSB: I’m sorry but without proper ID we can’t give you any money – THIS IS OUTRAGEOUS! Spent an alarming amount of money on food then returned to my toasty little house to drink hot Vimto and stuff a bacon, egg and mushroom sandwich down my gullet. Pleased I decided to select some poems in case there’s a space at tonight’s Hot Words at the Chilli open mic – lots of glitches in my Sunshine texts. Book is going to take much longer than first anticipated. Unshaven, unrehearsed, I am on the 45 to Newcastle. Will meet Jenni at the venue. She messaged to say school slam was cancelled, but good news is Edinburgh tickets only £22.50. 6.33pm.

Saturday 19th January 2013

Facebook update: Last night's HOT WORDS AT THE CHILLI was great. Loads of new faces there. Quality feature sets from Jeff Price and Ettrick Scott plus a fast paced open mic. Well done to co-hosts Aidan Clarke and Annie Moir. Looking forward to the next one. Coming up there's also Lamplight Open Mic, SLAMalmagate, Trashed Organ, Poetry Jam, JibbaJabba, Scratch Tyne and Tees, Black Light Engine Room, and Electric Kool Aid Cabaret plus one-off extravaganzas from Appples and Snakes and Radikal Words. North east spoken word most definitely alive and well in 2013. Think it's gonna be a good year. Keep it going!

Surprised by the amount of snow this morning. Pleased I didn’t have to go out in it. Seem to have spent all day getting nowhere fast. I did some editing and the rest of the day working on book designs. Listened to Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, stuffed myself with pork pies, a bacon and egg sandwich and oaty bars. Pleased to have a mock up of my new chapbook made. This project is taking a long time. 11.00pm.