Thirteen Days

Monday 21st March 2016

Stayed up till four this morning, getting the last tweaks of the website sorted. Only four and a half hours sleep. Don’t know where the rest of the day has gone. A bit of typesetting and chatting to Jenni. Day off, really. Just chilling till the batteries recharge. Soap operas, crime dramas, eggs in baskets and jelly babies. 11.04 pm.

Tuesday 22nd March 2016

Another day at home. Loose ends for college courses. The news online and tv all about Belgium. I’m getting a little cabin fever. Looked at some bike stuff today. Be good to get active again. Still eating too much, reading too little. 10.27 pm.

Wednesday 23rd March 2016

Nice to be making up booklets again. Stock of Steel Town Blues by Consett Writers running low. Initially we had the anthology pro-trimmed at Griffin Print; today I just used a Stanley Knife. After lunch I prepped for the evening session. Went into town and paid in a cheque. Bought some blue shit in a bottle and beef madras in a can with micro-rice for tea at Waddy. Session was good. Got the little evening anthology sequenced. Played about with book titles on the bus back. Canny day. 10.55 pm.

Thursday 24th March 2016

A good day in Stanley. Me and Jenni set off at ten past nine and were at the Civic Hall by quarter past ten. Jen smoked a cigarette and I went to wash newsprint from my fingers. The Bamburgh Suite was all set up with the MIND info boards and tables.

    After Alan, the rest of the Consett Writers arrived in twos and threes. We did a half hour set. Lorraine kicked it off with Winging It. Then I did Piece of String. Tina read a new piece about her son, then Alan did a rant about consumerism. Carol read a poem about Boris, Valerie did a sestina about school work. Geoff read a Gerald Blimey monologue from our character sketch workshop. Then we did another round, with a guest appearance from Jenni Pascoe.

     Come twelve, the food arrived. We all tucked in, ate savouries then cake; chatted about comedy, poetry pamphlets and travel.

    Me and Jenni looked round the town afterwards – mainly small we-sell-everything shops but one or two specialist places – a comic shop and a goth-fronted tattoo parlour. Jenni talked to a woman in the latter about purple hair.

    We did about an hour’s wander then I got the bus home. Jenni went off to Gateshead for a medical appointment. I was home long enough to do my weekly finances, eat some kettle chips and open some zines – Echo Echo 8 from Canada and four copies of the Al Mutanabbi collaborative zine from the Newcastle workshop me and Jenni attended a couple of weeks ago.

   Consett bus station. Some bloke shouts CUNT! at a bus driver who pulled away from the bay early. You fucking cunt! None of the elderly ladies seated nearby seem offended, one or two even sympathetic. “Yes, it is annoying when they won’t wait, isn’t it?”

    I’m going to eat4less in Newcastle then on to the Cumberland Arms for JibbaJabba. Simon Woods playing the hang drums, then after some open mic Jean Binta Breeze; part two will be comedy from Julian Lee, more open mic then Tom Kelly will be closing the night. Only three more Jibba’s to go. Wish I’d got that X70 that just pulled out. 45 late again. Typical. 5.50 pm.

Friday 25th March 2016

Bit exhausted this evening. Quite a backlog of typesetting which took a while with RSI playing up. Plus incoming mail and other distractions. Me and Jenni ventured out to the shop for essentials and she got annoyed at the owner for interfering in our conversation about cheese. Kitchen is a mess. That’s the trouble with recycling – tins on ledges, bags of empty plastic bottles – the wind is getting up and things tend to blow away if wheelie bin falls over. Really tired. Will be working much of the weekend. Lots to catch up on. 10.45 pm.

Saturday 26th March 2016

Barrys Bargain Store was full of easter egg buyers this morning. Tesco full of meat gatherers. I was home by half twelve with supplies for the bank holiday. Jenni is out at a dance show in Sunderland with her mam. I’ve been listening to Toyah and tweaking a Colour your Life writing anthology for Waddy. My head is throbbing now. Feel a migraine coming on. Going to knock off early. 10.07 pm.

Sunday 27th March 2016

Could have done with an extra hour in bed this morning. Me and Jenni had a massive Sunday dinner – pork steaks, roasties, parsnips, sprouts, carrots, broccoli, boiled potatoes, mash, peas and gravy. Slept a lot this afternoon. Watched Eichmann, Pen and Teller and Thirteen. 11.43 pm.

Monday 28th March 2016

I’m not into Bank Holidays. Easter has totally wrecked my schedule. Still, I’ve got the Colour your Life evening class anthology pretty much ready to go. Read some interesting zine stuff on Trace Ramsey. Read all of Kathleen Kenny’s Travelling Like Eggs this morning and am looking forward to her new poetry collection The Bed Sharers from Red Squirrel Press next week. Looking forward to a few days on my own stuff after Saturday’s writing marathon. 10.58 pm.

Tuesday 29th March 2016

Sometimes I forget that other people aren’t as gung-ho about getting things done as I can be at times, so I hit a bit of a roadblock today. Aim to still get the CYL anthology printed tomorrow. Really want to get the big projects out the way so that I can just be a bit more ‘in the  moment’ instead of trying to hurtle to the next finish line all the time. Jenni uploaded four old-school typewriter fonts to my computer this afternoon. I want to do a zine or poetry chapbook in distressed typewriter font at some point this year. I have selected about thirty prompts for Saturday’s writing marathon at Broadacre House. I only need 26 but would like to get a few more so that I have lots to choose from. Was good to get a shave for the first time in about a week. Jenni has gone back to Bensham. Tinnitus seems really loud today. 10.30 pm.

Wednesday 30th March 2016

Not the day I expected. A fifteen minute session in the college to drop off paperwork turned out to be an hour and three-quarters. The booklets got printed this afternoon. Made up copies in session tonight. Did some easy exercises. A bit on the consequences of plagiarism, 16 points to remember when preparing for a public reading and a last-lines exercise. The group were pleased with the course. Jenni thinks all the red tape I told her about is fucking ludicrous. I can’t really complain about the level of scrutiny. If I was funding a project I’d want to know how the money was being spent as well. I’ve just sat on the bed and cut some dead skin from my feet with a pair of scissors. Pleased to be done. 11.21 pm.

Thursday 31st March 2016

Big Black Cloud over The Grove as I walk into town to meet the Consett Writers. There’s a queue in the chip shop and the two at the front have an order that takes eight minutes and comes to over twenty-five quid. One kid has been waiting for his kebab meat and chips since before I arrived. The three guys serving have reinvented ‘slow’. Fuck’s sake! I’m watching the minutes tick towards half six – our pick-up time for the trip to Northern Stage for the poetry slam – until the couple at the front get their food bagged up and select their free 2-litre bottle of pop and go. The girl in front of me then orders cod and chips. It’ll be about eight minutes, says the guy who serves her. My heart sinks, my stomach rumbles and I curse under my breath… Eventually, I get served. Small chips and tiny sauce (gravy), open. It’s mad hot and I have six minutes to eat it. Geoff is arriving on Front Street as I tuck in. Alan and Lorraine are already at the pick-up point and the rest of the writers arrive shortly after. We wait five minutes or so then Fergus from Waddy turns the corner in the minibus. We all get onboard and the sun shines. Off we head to Newcastle for the Great Northern Slam. 6.50 pm.

Standard of performers at Northern Stage was pretty bloody high. Great to see new people and familiars. The visiting Yorkshire poets Dave Jarman and Hannah Davies were the finalists. Hannah won it. Fantastic night. 11.37 pm.

Friday 1st April 2016

“NaPoWriMo prompt isn’t very good today,” Jenni complains.

    I decided to go with an alternative 30 days writing challenge which isn’t specifically poetry. I’m going to tack the prompt sheet to the side of my chest of drawers by the bed and use it for this month’s morning pages.

    Today has mostly been taken up with prep for tomorrow’s writing marathon. Another trip into Consett for food supplies. Boxed everything up, got the booklets made and the prompts finalized.

    Jenni is having a big room reshuffle so I’m anticipating sleeping in a lock-up this weekend. The 45 to Newcastle is ten minutes late. I’m knackered and still have a load of sandwiches to prepare. Two people have dropped out of the workshop. Tried to find replacements, but no takers. Can’t wait to get to bed. 8.44 pm.

Saturday 2nd April 2016

Cracking day. Eleven of us did eleven rounds of writing with read-backs in fours hours. Well knackered afterwards, slept at Jen’s for a bit then ate some leftover marathon food. Bus home around eight. Jeff Miller's new zine plus his full length Ghost Pine paperback arrived in my absence. Looking forward to reading those. Uploaded lots of today’s pix onto Facebook. Time off for a while now. Ok. 11.21 pm.