Just Another Week

Monday 12th September 2016

Chatted with Jenni after breakfast for a while then biked home to Consett on three gears. Basically kept the chain on the second-smallest back cog and just shifted across front large, middle and granny rings. Surprisingly only six minutes longer to get home than the ninety minute trundle down on Saturday. Didn’t eat till about two, had a bath then checked messages. Wrote some emails. Keyed in some fragments from morning pages. My intention is to edit down the best of 2016 and put results out as a Lulu paperback next year. In recent days I’ve not been able to salvage much coz I’m preoccupied with issues of employment. Made myself a proper dinner with carrots, peas, mash, boiled potatoes and a pork steak with gravy. I wanted to read a bit more Amanda Palmer tonight but think I just need a big sleep. 10.47 pm.

Tuesday 13th September 2016

Keyed in some morning pages, made a new poster for workshops this afternoon. Jenni proofed it for me. Printed out a list of 58 libraries and community centres in County Durham where I might place it. Hoping to arrange a Durham city venue next week. Another warm day but farthest I got was the shop for shaving gel and soap. Listened to The Richie Allen Show tonight. A guy on about the corruption of the banking industry and another about levels of pollution following the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster. Got more editing done on the Anomalies book. All the initial content in now. Will edit back to a reasonable length in due course. Thunder and lightning tonight. 11.11 pm.

Wednesday 14th September 2016

Never got out on my longboard tonight. It’s been a grey day and dark by the time I felt alert enough to do anything requiring balance and physical energy. Wish I’d known that Valerie Laws had a crime fiction and poetry event on at Low Fell library this evening. Would have been good to be at that. I stayed home and watched a distinguished panel of Goths, including Rosie Garland, discuss the sub culture for an hour and a half. Funny how a lot of people associated with it don’t like the label. I’m not really ‘Goth’ either. I just never learned to colour coordinate my clothes and always got white t shirts mucky after about an hour. Even my mam says I look odd in anything but black these days. The Cambian Appletree workshop went well. Surreal poems and cut-up editing. I got in touch with a previous employer this evening in hopes of getting more work. Been listening to the Cure and Joy Division. Hope I get out somewhere tomorrow. Ok done here. 10.47 pm.

Thursday 15th September 2016

Woke at half three this morning and didn’t get back to sleep till nearly seven. Totally ruined my schedule for the day. What is it with this super hot weather well into September? I never really like it too hot. It’s why I have no desire to jet off to another country for a summer holiday. I’ve heard all that ‘different kind of heat’ a million times. Don’t care. The older I get the more stubborn I become. Walked into town for food supplies. Will have to be a bit more frugal this autumn. Can’t afford a seven-day bus pass every week this term so I’ll not be at as many open mic nights. This evening I got the Poetry Jam event page up on Facebook and listened to a bootleg of U2's The Joshua Tree Tour at Edinburgh Murrayfield Stadium on YouTube. One of the support acts that day was The Mission and I was down the front. Never really a massive U2 fan but on that occasion they were pretty amazing. Doubt I’d go see them again though. Couldn’t afford it. 11.30 pm.

Friday 16th September 2016

Usually spend all of Friday at home. This week is no different. Some emails in from the college. Term starts next week but I’m only doing one formal course this autumn. I’m negotiating other stuff, so things should even out by 2017. It was good to get more work done on my ‘Anomalies’ book, and to cook a decent dinner – pork steak, carrots, peas and potatoes. Spotted an Italian trials rider online called Vittorio Brumotti. He does ace stuff on a full-size road racing bike and has amazing stamina for uphill rocky climbs – a real king of the mountains – as much upper body strength as anything else. Good to have an easy evening watching bike videos and reading up on Keith Morris from Black Flag. 10.42 pm.

Saturday 17th September 2016

Good to do some booklet cut and paste this afternoon at the drop-leaf table. I have three book projects on the go, but am itching to make a little pocket zine. Had a nice relaxed ride down to Jen’s place. We did a Tesco dash and got more food than we need. Mediterranean vegetable pizza and chips, ice cream; steak pie (for me), apple doughnuts. Watched The Last Leg Paralympics show then got whopped at Connect Four whilst listening to 70s/80s classic rock on the radio. 11.05 pm.

Sunday 18th September 2016

Wrote a fluky little narrative this morning which appears to be a sort of companion piece to my Lazy Sunday prose poem, featuring a bit of me and Jenni banter. Went out to Newcastle this afternoon. Had an eat4less baguette then Jen went to the Scratch Tyne performance workshop. I went to Travelling Man book / comic shop. Got stung just below my eye by a wasp caught under my glasses on the way. The shop has sold all the handmade books I placed in their indy small press section, so some sweet consolation. Checked out mountain bikes in Start Cycles, did a bit of work in the library, then met up with the poets for a while before going back to the house for food and lazy Sunday evening television. 11.05 pm.