Back in Business

Monday 16th January 2017

Contact lens check-up was £25.00. Box of lenses was £15.50. I gave the woman forty-one quid. She went away, took ages to return. Then gave me £4.50 in change. “Err, I think that’s wrong, it should only be fifty pence.” Her colleague checked it. “Yes, he’s right” she said. “Thanks!” And for my honesty, when I asked how long my lenses would take to arrive she said, “About a week. But we can give you some to be going on with.” So, I didn’t pocket the four quid, but I did get five pairs of lenses free. Spent much of this evening tweaking notes and making up a small batch of Babble Gum pamphlets. Not sure what price to ask for them. Certainly no more than two quid. Took me two hours to make ten, plus the cost of materials, so I think that’s fair enough. All my Waddy stuff is ready for tomorrow. And I’m shaved. Pleased to get a lot of stuff done today. Lush steamed vegetables with steak pie for tea. OK. 11.40 pm.

Tuesday 17th January 2017

Mint gig at the Split Chimp. Babble Gum totally ace. Enjoyed all the guests – Ceitidh Mac, Juli Watson and Rose Condo. Julie did a poem about Siouxsie Sioux and one about Katie Jane Garside from Queen Adreena. Rose Condo on top form as ever – Love, crisis calls and apology poems. Open mic had some magic moments – Jeff Price’s Trump satire, David Roe on love and lust, and Rowan McCabe’s snake poem was mint. Enjoyed doing my set, got some feedback on the pamphlet. In the pub afterwards Rose told me I called Leonard Cohen an American. Can’t believe I did that. The whole reason for including that piece was because Rose is Canadian. Slapped wrist for Steve. Session at Waddy went well. Numbers well up for the first day back. I’m on the last bus to Consett. Won’t get home till about twenty-to-one. Still hungry, despite soup, doughnut, cake, chocolate, chicken balti and rice. Answered some of the questions on poetry that Sylvian Greumach needed for Uni project. Canny day. 11.35 pm.

Wednesday 18th January 2017

Felt really hammered when I woke up. But still managed some rambles in my morning pages. Sent out some invoices and selected a load of Cambian writers’ poems for their approval to go in a booklet anthology, then headed out to Waddy. Always an enjoyable lunchtime with the staff. Good number of people attended the session in Meadowfield this afternoon. Jenni cooked a lovely full-on five-a-day veg meal this evening then we lazed out in front of the telly for an hour. Saw a brilliant Two Ronnies sweetshop sketch that I’ve never seen before. Corbet the customer being really picky with confectionary and Barker the shop owner trying to oblige. I won’t spoil it. Nice to get all the lovely feedback on last night’s Babble Gum. Top event. Well done to all involved. 11.40 pm.

Thursday 19th January 2017

Okay, so I should have been in bed by about half eleven last night, but I stayed up to watch Sebastian Keep’s ‘Walls’ film. Amazing, the guy is a 33 year-old BMX freestyle rider and uses portable purpose-built ramps and quarter pipes for jumps off bridges and wall-rides down buildings, putting tyre marks where they’ve never been before. A two year project to get four minutes of final action footage. I watched the accompanying thirty minute documentary and was blown away, totally inspired by the guy and his team’s dedication to seeking out spots in various cities in order to pull off these radical manoeuvres, executing the film shoots with military precision. Well, like a decent county council, anyway – it’s amazing what a high visibility vest, hard hat and some traffic cones at dawn can allow you to get away with. No hassle from passing police cars or supermarket delivery vans, the latter even moving out of the way to allow access for set up and filming of the stunt. Two years risking life and limb and prosecution to get four minutes of footage. Totally inspired by the vision and tenacity. Made me think that a book, exhibition or live show is worth lots of time and energy to reach fruition. Well done to Bas Keep and crew for pushing the boundaries of what is possible on a 20-inch bike and city architecture. Brilliant stuff…

Keyed in more words for Sylvian at lunchtime. Then over to Newton Aycliffe for the first session of a new block of workshops with the Pioneering Care Partnership writing group. Good turn out. Three of the eight people have worked with me before. It should be interesting to see how things develop. Tesco all-day sandwich in Newcastle Central Library. I often used to see Mark Potts in here, big smile on his face, always full of busy. Tonight I’m off to his tribute night at The Stanza in North Shields. Just seen a load of pictures on Facebook put up by the event organisers. Reckon there’ll be quite big turnout out for this gig. And rightly so. Jenni has written a brilliant poem about Mark and I’m sure people will love it. 6.19 pm.

Friday 20th January 2017

Long lie in after Jenni left for work. Felt I needed it after the prep and flitting about this week. Finished off the answers to Sylvian Greumach’s poetry questions. Been drafting by hand in transit. Pretty good way of working. Also been checking out materials for the next bookmaking  workshop, then went to see Clair Whitefield’s poetry show Chopping Chilli’s at Alphabetti Theatre. Lots of vignettes stitched together to creative an hour long narrative arc. Enjoyed talking to Tony Gadd about manual typewriters and Ian Waugh about fiction. I read some stories about Revenge on the way home, but all four were very similar. You slept with them, you bastard, take that! I like flash and short fiction but novels are too much for me to deal with. 11.43 pm.

Saturday 21st January 2017

Stayed at home. If I’d gone to a gig tonight it would be ten days in a row by next Thursday and I need to be here to get some work done. Had a bit of an eighties revival whilst typing: Depeche Mode, Erasure, Alison Moyet. Tried to get in touch with Jenni but she hasn’t been on Facebook or answering her phone. Pleased to get my gig set sorted for next week. 10.25 pm.

Sunday 22nd January 2017

Good to hear from Jenni this morning and see her before I went off to Broadacre House. Enjoyed taking part in Clair Whitefield’s workshops. She had a brilliant turnout. I counted eighteen in the room. Enjoyed doing all the exercises – freewriting, bridges to the surreal, letters to inner critic, character development. Have done quite a lot of the stuff before with my groups but good to be on the receiving end for a change. Back to Jen’s for tea. Loved watching the Adele story tonight. I know – not punk, Goth or metal, but she’s brilliant. Read some more Revenge stories on the bus home. A lot more inventive than last time. 11.18 pm.