Frustrations, Fatigue and Flat Surfaces

Tuesday 11th June 2013

Up early to prep for Writing for All. Think I overdid it a bit. Bag handles nearly snapping due to all the books I took. Never used half of them. We had a great session though. Did some surgery on the half-marathon writing produced last week. Showed them some great little David Gaffney stories. We are hoping to get a substantial Waddy anthology together for the autumn. Be good to do another library tour for National Poetry Day. Did a bit of food gathering afterwards. Spoke to Jenni a couple of times on the phone. Got a call from Sustrans. Cycles tracks across the country in need of repair. I had to cancel my direct debit when money was tight but gave them the okay to take three quid a month. Made up some blank marathon books for the next two workshops and uploaded some low-quality snaps of Poetry Jam to Facebook. No tv, no reading. Ready for bed already. 10.36pm.

Wednesday 12th June 2013

Sketchy start to the half-marathon but we got some good pieces of writing down. After lunch I helped Chris with his booklet. Should be ready by 12th July no sweat. Photocopied work from all today’s participants. Hopefully we’ll work on these pieces over the coming weeks. Off to Stockton this evening to see Luke Wright at ARC. Don’t know if my Arcade membership will be active yet. If so, it’ll save me five quid.

I’m on the X1 bus now. It’s a grim journey. I’m dog-tired and really would have preferred to be going home. Especially as I have another writing half-marathon tomorrow. Some little kid is whingeing and it’s really annoying. I know he can’t help it, infants are like that, but it’s not what you need after a full-on day. 5.38pm.

Later: Nice surprise Amanda Baker supporting Luke Wright. I knew all her poems but good to see and hear again. Luke is good at what he does. It’s rhyming comedy really. He only did a couple of grim hard-hitting pieces. I’m a bit flat tonight. 10.40pm.

Thursday 13th June 2013

Wrote six or seven new pieces at MIND in Consett today. The group enjoyed the half-marathon. Be cool to get a booklet out of it. Long and tedious afternoon. Left my entire week’s food shopping in the library and had to trail all the way back into town to retrieve it. Didn’t feel like going out after that but pleased I did. Very enjoyable evening meal in Durham for Waddy volunteers. Burger with wedges and varied conversations on tv, music and theatre. Caught the five past nine 15 bus back to Consett which conveniently became the V8 to Moorside so I was back in the house just over an hour after leaving the Head of Steam. Read three Rollins articles from the LA Weekly and an update from Jenni. Pleased she had a good gig in Sunderland this evening. Ready for bed now. Work on the book again tomorrow. 10.52pm.

Friday 14th June 2013

Obstacles and setbacks. Took ages to get at the table marking out and folding inner covers of book. Only managed to get fourteen done. Another 30-odd to go. And that’s before they get glued in position. Then they’re all to trim. Then there’s dust jackets to fold and trim. I reckon its going to be at least another fortnight before the “…Sunshine” book sees the light of day. I would have kept going this evening but it’s impossible to mark up fold lines on dark brown card with pencil in artificial light. Have been listening to The Cure Live at Bestival and Aura by The Mission. Checked out SAVAGES recommended to me by Waddy coordinator Ali Lee. Great band. Hands a bit sore again this evening. I can hear Jumping Someone Else’s Train coming up through the floorboards. Might have an earlier night than intended. Oh well. Enough. 10.35pm.

Saturday 15th June 2013

Worked on the book again. Covers take fourteen minutes each to fold. Very laborious. Knocked off early to get over to Newcastle for a birthday present. Sat in Jenni’s looking for a flat surface to work on. Now at Claire’s party. Tom Hollingworth has just played “Down in the Hole” by Tom Waits and is entertaining us with his own acoustic number “Rise”. Valerie is here. Viv, Hannah, Annie, AJ, James, John Chadwick, lots I don’t know. 9.10pm.

Sunday 16th June 2013

Nice to have a lie in at Jenni’s. We went into town early coz she had a one to one at midday with Kirsten before Scratch Tyne. I went book browsing. Tried getting some lines from a poem nailed but even after three hours of copying out the words I don’t know it. My days of bookless performances are numbered. Bailed on the workshop but enjoyed the performance evening. Bus to Consett then thirty minute walk to Moorside. 11.17pm.

Monday 17th June 2013

Did morning pages in bed and stayed there till after ten this morning. Pleased the repeated copying out of a poem yesterday is aiding the memorisation process. Spent some time doing a few trial runs for bookbinding and hoped the internet would be back on by lunchtime. I don’t know what is going on. But it’s getting really annoying now. At least four days out of seven I lose internet connection – sometimes for an hour, sometimes for six hours. Might consider changing server if it doesn’t improve soon. Last time I rang all I got was an automated message saying they were experiencing problems with mail and would endeavour to alleviate the problem asap.

Really tired. Could do with a full day off but have three workshop sessions to prepare and lots of admin. Won’t get any more Sunshine book work done till Wednesday. 2.39pm.

Internet is back on. I rang TalkTalk and voiced my grievance. They offered to send out a technician but it would cost me fifty quid. Absolutely No WAY! Then they said they’d do some checks and could I ring back in fifteen minutes. Surprise-surprise, within that time it came back on – four pages open, Spotify and receiving incoming messages all at the same time. 

Lesson plan copy-ups late afternoon and session prep this evening. 6.20pm.