TOO MUCH CHOCOLATE!

Monday 9th January 2017

Seem to have spent much of today just editing and tinkering with admin, both personal and educational. Hadn’t worked on college documents for well over a month and the return to those gridded ticky-box forms today has been a bit of a shock to the system. Listened to She Used to Be Mine by Sara Bareilles from the musical theatre production Waitress. The ‘she’ being the narrator’s former self. Ended up playing quite a lot of Sara’s songs on Spotify throughout the day. Spoke to my sister Diane on the phone this evening and she seems to be a bit better than she was the last time I phoned. Hopefully back home for good soon. Lots of people liked the writing marathon pix on Facebook. I read door to door poet Rowan McCabe’s great blog today about visiting a mosque. Tonight I edited a week of morning pages from last February. Reckon there’s a book in my endeavour. 11.38 pm.

Tuesday 10th January 2017

WELL, THAT WAS A WEE BIT GOOD. Tomorrow’s workshop prep was sorted quicker than I thought it would be, so I took all the stuff I wrote on Saturday up to Consett and redrafted the lot by hand in the library. Whilst there, I noticed a new ‘Freddie Mercury - An Illustrated Life’ biography face forward in the outsize section. Then, whilst stretching my legs after a few hours, I chanced upon biketrial extraordinaire Danny MacAskill’s book ‘At the Edge – Riding for my Life’ so I borrowed that as well. Picked up a half-price rhubarb pie at Tesco on the way home. When I got here a Facey-B message from that canny Mr Simma offered me a gig at The Cumberland - which just happens to be one of my favourite venues. Nice one. Cheers!

Printed out dozens of poems by Cambian Writers for some edit sessions with a view to doing a little anthology. 10.52 pm.

Wednesday 11th January 2017

“Got me new Docs from Shoe Stop in Bishop Auckland this morning. Bloke opened up the shop for me, even though they were officially closed. Regaled me with hilarious retail anecdotes and knocked off a fiver for an invisible toe blemish. Seven hole, yellow stitch industrials. Fifty quid brand new, boxed. Steve well chuffed!”

They’ll probably kill my ankles for a couple of weeks until worn in. But once they are – awesome! Bit of disruption beyond my control at Cambian Appletree today. It’s a hospital and when people are having a bad time things can get a little tense. But I pulled it round and people who stayed were calmed and entertained by the end of it. I read ‘Holiday on Death Row’ by Roger McGough on the buses: Survivor, Take a Poem Miss Smith, Time and Tide, The Lake – great stuff. It was the first proper poetry book I read back in the late eighties after reading Henry Rollins and the prose of Bukowski. Met up with Jen in Newcastle, had an eat4less; checked out magazines at WH Smith. Bought doughnuts then watched a bit of TV back in Bensham. Food at Tesco, home by eleven. 11.35 pm.

Thursday 12th January 2016

Got through much of the day without the central heating on. But it’s fucking bitter tonight. Been doing rewrites of lesson plans for the college. Stuff I’ve delivered loads of times, but the hard copy needed tweaking – dates, times, outcomes, equipment lists… The usual attention to detail that no-one gives a shit about once the papers are filed. Listened to a lot of Roger Taylor solo tracks this afternoon and looked at the new ‘Freddie Mercury An Illustrated Life’ biography that I got at the library on Tuesday. Still loads to do, admin wise. Found a second version of my Charlatan poem that I quite like from Angels and Devils workshop. Wrote a letter to my friend Stephen Clark this morning. Got one from him this evening. We’ll have to meet up at some point in the next month or so. Felt like watching a film this evening, but I never manage to stay settled. Or, conversely, I fall asleep. Oh well... 11.34 pm.

Friday 13th January 2016

Still nowhere near sorted for my courses next week. Usually I’m in a big panic at the beginning of the year overthinking everything and it’s a complete waste of time coz I never fully stick to Schemes of Learning anyway. Which means doing paperwork twice. I’m loaded with reusable lesson plans, got hundreds of them. I’ll get some preliminary options emailed to the college and we’ll see what people actually want when I go in on the first day. I’ve been asked to do a set at the Babble Gum next Tuesday. I thought about throwing a few new things in, but don’t want to just treat it like a road test; that’s what open mics are for. Reckon it’ll be stuff cherry picked from my favourite sets of last year. Pleased to get the Poetry Jam event page up online this evening. Eaten too much tonight. Chicken bakes, beans, chocolate, nuts. 

11.47 pm.

Saturday 14th January 2017

From Morning Pages:

Nineteen years to the day since I was sectioned under the mental health act and diagnosed with bi-polar disorder. I went through hell in 1998, but hey, I’m still here.

I asked a psychologist if it was okay to use Hypomaniac as a book title and she said it was fine. I remember the monthly meetings we had, remember getting time out from my working day at the warehouse to go down to Maiden Law for the hour long sessions and for the most part just have full-on me, me, me time culminating in readings from my journals and the suggestion that I should be writing for the theatre. Which wasn’t a bad call as I’m now considered to be a performance poet.

It was fortuitous for me that a theatre group called Theatre Cap-a-Pie should be operating pretty much on the door step. The eight or nine months I spent with them really helped me get a good grounding in workshops, performing, community arts events and facilitation. So I’m really pleased to be still going strong nearly two decades later.

It’s now debatable if I am bi-polar. No major episodes for years and years. No medication for three or four years.

You have to be careful what you wish for: I thought it would be good to go out and get a lot more gigs this year and so far have five appearances lined up. Would like to go to more events across the country…

Made a little booklet of my set for Babble Gum. Listened to Roger Taylor songs from Electric Fire. Spoke to Mam and Ernie on the phone – they haven’t sold their house yet. I’ve not had much time to read new stuff, but am pleased to make a start on Amazon by Catherine Ayres. I want Bill Drummond’s book ‘45’. Watched Big Bang Theory and Open All Hours with Jenni tonight. 11.10 pm.

Sunday 15th January 2017

Lazy day for me. Jenni defrosted her freezer with a hairdryer then bought loads of food at Tesco. I got card for the next bookmaking workshop. Had a chicken curry for tea and watched The Voice and Dance Dance Dance. Worked out logistics for upcoming fortnight of gigs and workshops when I got home. Watched the end Adam Ant Blue Black Hussar DVD. Ate too much chocolate! 11.19 pm.