Seven Days

Monday 27th April 2015

Enjoyed Nirvana and Patti Smith on Spotify today. Spent most of my time typing up Home Town Slog notes from last year. Not much came out of the April volume. Still got about twenty pages to check out. Been strange not prepping workshops today. I have my stuff lined up for the week, tomorrow morning will be sufficient to get my materials bagged up and photocopied at Waddington Street Centre. 10.26 pm.

Tuesday 28th April 2015

Loving the compact Essential Poems from the Staying Alive Trilogy. I love the originals but at 500 pages a volume they’re a bit bulky for the bag. Sessions went well. Had to wing the afternoon a bit coz the room containing my materials was hired out for a meeting. First session of new evening course went pretty well. Had to trim / limit read backs once or twice to get through all the exercises. Prepped some American slam poetry analysis on the bus back for tomorrow. Mince and onion pasty with beans for supper. A few more little bits of admin and I’m done for the day. 10.47 pm.

Wednesday 29th April 2015

Tired tonight. Day was fine. Ali from Waddy gave me one of two leather jackets that had been donated to the Centre. Looks pretty much brand new. Tonight I watched some political stuff and had a bit of a tweak of Jane Burn's pamphlet. Aiming to clear the decks of all publications by the end of May so that I can work on ANOMALIES 1989 – 2014 as a preliminary to my Red Squirrel Press collection, ‘Laughter to Split Glass’. 10.38 pm.

Thursday 30th April 2015

Good session at Mind this morning. Pleased to have the rest of the week to myself. Bit of a migraine coming on. Maybe that’s due to abut four or five hours of political manifesto scanning and part leaders election Question Time. Gritting teeth means headache getting worse. Will have to be in bed soon. 10.38 pm.

Friday 1st May 2015

Good to be at home all day. Watched a Tony Benn documentary and keyed in some notes. Have read Jane Burn’s pamphlet again and combed over for typos. Also done more edits on an evening class anthology. Finding myself in the run-up to the election preoccupied with articles on failings and so-called triumphs of political parties. No closer on who to vote for than I was a few weeks ago. Watched some Rollins Band live performances on YouTube and tweaked more booklet stuff. Good to hear from Jenni. According to some website my Facebook profile pic makes me look 54 years old. Today I pretty much feel it. But at least the migraine was gone when I woke up. Tomorrow I’ll be off to Middlesbrough to see Attila the Stockbroker. Pipe Riot are supporting. Should be a good night. 11.36 pm.

Saturday 2nd May 2015

Every time this Arrive X12 stops the vibration from the engine rattles my teeth and brain. Off to Middlesbrough. The last few times Attila has been in the NE the gig has clashed with something else. Xmas 2013 there were four events on at the same time that I wanted to be at. I’m meeting Jenni at half six. The whole journey one-way will take over three hours. Today has been pretty good. I sent pamphlet updates to Jane, a dummy copy of Newton Aycliffe anthology to Dan at PCP then tackled the disaster that is my kitchen. Dishes, microwave and cooker done. Started abdominal exercise this month; steak pies and packets of chewy sweets are probably a bad idea. It’s raining, it’s cold, but at least I’m moving. 5.39 pm.

Nice night at the gig. Good to see Pipe Riot support. And to see Attila enjoying their set. Pleased his set was split in two halves. Some extracts from his autobiography “Arguments Yard”, some songs and new poems. Good to get his latest poetry book signed. Hilarious Puppy Love encore. And Jenni liked him too. Good to hear TV Smith on the PA as well. 11.45 pm.

Sunday 3rd May 2015

Really long lie in today. Me and Jenni didn’t get home from Attila’s gig until 20 past two this morning. (Middlesbrough bus late back to Durham for the half midnight N21 to Gateshead.) Watched a few episodes of Breaking Bad. Hilarious. Both looking forward to the next instalment. Slept on the bus back to Consett. Caught up on emails. 11.20 pm.