Good Work If You Can Get It

Saturday 29th June 2013

Up early to go to Jenni’s before Jailhouse Block Roller Derby. Good afternoon. Newcastle Roller Girls won both their bouts. Went to the Goose afterwards and had the crown carvery. Lots of food. Jenni gave me a great card with a cartoon of us and We Are Three on the front. It’s mint! Very tired now. Snack before bed. 9.50pm.

Sunday 30th June 2013

Extended lie-in this morning. Very tired so we stayed inside listening to the radio. Jenni likes the show tunes on Elaine Page’s programme. Then Johnnie Walker’s Sounds of the Seventies. Watched The Cube and ‘Lincoln Jail’ Time Team special. Jenni wanted me to stay but I have lots of work to finish off this week. And I’ve committed myself to more time out. 20 past ten bus to Consett. Home before midnight. 10.30pm.

Monday 1st July 2013

Spent the whole day on the book. Wish I’d just used the brand new can of photo mount adhesive from the beginning instead of waiting till I got down to the dregs of the old one. Nozzle of the can kept clogging up. Did the second half of the batch with the new can and the covers went on much easier. Had a bit of glue seepage so have to re-make two copies with fresh endpapers. Will mark out covers in the morning. My hands have been hurting all day. Even before starting bookwork. Will switch to finances tomorrow to give tendons a rest. Wish I’d remembered to buy bread this evening. Porridge for supper before the last of the milk goes off. Really tired, hope my books turn out okay. Still a lot more work to do. 10.55pm.

Tuesday 2nd July 2013

Instead of doing finances I decided to trim a few copies of Sunshine. The page margins fluctuate book to book. Not ideal, but I can live with it. The handmade nature of the volume allows for this; a novel with dancing margins would drive me to distraction. Pleased I put some production pix up on Facebook. Good feedback. Apparently I’m pricing it way too low, which is a surprise. Cover price is a tenner, but if anyone wants to give me fifteen that’s fine. Unfortunately my wrists have packed in again. Too much book binding. Will have to lay off it for a while. Tomorrow I must do a lesson plan for Mind and key in some bits and pieces for Chris Hill’s pamphlet. Taxes can wait till Friday. But I want the book done by next weekend if possible. Fucking annoyed about my hands. Just pushing this gel pen is sending shooting pains into my wrist. Should probably wear splints in bed. Pleased to get 13th Star album by Fish in the post today. Heavy guitars. 9.55pm.

Wednesday 3rd July 2013

Pretty full-on day despite dodgy hands. Sent some small press stuff off to Kirsten from Apples coz she’s after format ideas for a publication to compliment her Edinburgh Fringe show. Worked all afternoon on Chris Hill’s pamphlet. Almost there. We need 30 copies for the Waddy open day / Learner achievement awards next week. Sure we’ll be fine. This evening I rummaged through every stack of workshop papers in sight for material from last Mind session. Managed to pull a new session together in the process and found the notes after emptying my wheelie case; they were tucked in the back of the last file. Keyed in text and finished just after eleven. At the post office this morning the cashier asked if I had the day off. Ha, joke! Good work if you can get it, though. Hands still aching. Looking forward to tomorrow night’s Poetry Jam. Need to select something to read there. Be good to get back to work on my book. Another week should see it finished, I hope. 11.46pm.

Thursday 4th July 2013

Back home after a heavy day. Some quite challenging moments in my workshop this morning but an enjoyable session. Then numerous roadblocks on pamphlet at Waddington Street. Only got a week to get the thing printed and the cover isn’t ready. Never mind, we’ll get there. I feel a bit knackered. Had a meeting with New College. Didn’t say much, I never do. More new paperwork… With spoken word gigs happening elsewhere in the region tonight, I thought Poetry Jam would be fairly quiet, but yet another great turn out. Thanks to our wonderful guests Sarah Hammersley, Aidan Cant and Mandy Maxwell for such thoroughly engaging sets. And the jammers gave it their all too. Great to see new people in the audience. Tomorrow I must address finances. Pleased I don’t have to be anywhere until late afternoon. Really want to be asleep now. Struggling to push the pen, wish my hands would work properly again. 11.15pm.

Friday 5th July 2013

Back in my messy room after a meal out with the staff of Waddington Street Centre. I never have much conversation. I don’t do a lot besides workshops and self-indulgent scribbles. Had a chicken tikka Malayan with chips and rice. Needed the chips to make it a substantial meal. I’m only full coz I had ice cream and an oaty yoghurt bar before I left the house. Had some distractions from my work routine. Pleased to have Chris Hill’s pamphlet back on track. Hope to get it printed Monday. Tomorrow I might just leave the computer off and do my tax return. Need to sift through some Waddy poems to read at open day next Friday. Sometimes wonder how I keep my little workshops going. I’m nothing special. I don’t have any lightning bolts of wisdom. Just trying to get by as best I can. 11.17pm.

Saturday 6th July 2013

Shift to the cooler side of the bus so I’m not sick with the sun. I used to be in shorts by July in my twenties. Will be needing a hat if the heatwave keeps up. Got my tax return done today. Was meant to be on the quayside hours ago. Wanted to see spoken word at Cycle Hub but fell asleep and missed the bus. Some say it happened over twenty years ago. My wrists are a bit better. 7.10pm.

Sunday 7th July 2013

Me and Jenni had a walk around the Ouseburn festival this afternoon. Good to go back to The Cycle Hub and catch the moment Mr Murray won Wimbledon. Saw Helena, Jonathan, Sky, Alan and Carol out today. Watched some tv in the furnace of an attic at Jen’s. Great to see Dougie Lampkin mototrials riding at the BBC on Top Gear. Home by about half ten. Too hot, too hot! 11.14pm.

Monday 8th July 2013

Jenni messaged this evening saying she’s got through most of her tasks for the week already. It’s great when there’s no external forces to hinder progress. Bad day for me, though. Got to Waddy and realised my keys weren’t in my pocket. Either left them in the door or lost them. We didn’t get covers printed so I couldn’t do job even if I could concentrate on it. Bugger. Keys dangling from the outside of my door when I got back. Took me five and a half hours to get all the margins and numbers right on the pamphlet this evening. Chris said just print it as it was but no way – not after months of tweaking the poems to have shoddy layout. My one tiny slip today could have cost me big time. What a day! 11.17pm.

Tuesday 9th July 2013

Up working till one, then back up at six doing my morning pages to come up with some workshop content for the next few sessions; then after further prep back to Waddy to print off Chris Hill’s pamphlet. It looks great and reads even better. Really pleased Chris likes the results. Bit tired tonight. Had ice cream and banana then went in the bath. I’ve been listening to Fish a lot of late. Only heard a few of his solo albums, but love Vigil in a Wilderness of Mirrors. Wish I’d gone to see him play at the Sage or Arc in May. Not my usual listening material, but I think he’s quite a wordsmith. Particularly his work with Marillion. Used to grind through my traumatic teens with Misplaced Childhood, Fugazi and Script for a Jester’s Tear as the soundtrack. Washed some clothes in the sink for the next couple of days. Jenni has been busy getting herself some gigs for Edinburgh Fringe. When my head clears I’ll do likewise. 10.04pm.

Wednesday 10th July 2013

Rather relaxed session at Waddy this morning. After lunch I cracked on with the remainder of Chris Hill’s books. Pleased to get them all done. A good little debut poetry collection. Looking forward to the launch on Friday afternoon. Very tired now. I’m half-way through Waiting for Beckett documentary; prompted to watch this after seeing on BBC News website that the original manuscript of Murphy sold at auction for £962, 500.00. Never read any Beckett for a few years. Was somewhat obsessed with certain aspects of his work during my mid to late twenties. I have a workshop to prep but am too burnt out to do it. Probably best to do it in the morning. Pleased I have nowhere to be after lunch. Roll on Saturday. 8.50pm.

Thursday 11th July 2013

Awake before six again. Gave me plenty time to prep but I felt quite hammered by lunchtime. The workshop was pretty good this morning but hard to get anyone to hand over their writing. Staff at Consett Mind said it’s a common problem but would nudge them. The library had two Marillion biographies for me. I’m only interested in the Fish years. Fell asleep on the couch for a couple of hours. Jenni emailed to say River Runs at Washington Arts Centre has been cancelled. Only eight tickets sold. We were meant to be going. Typed up some work from last couple of terms for tomorrow’s open day. I hope we have some readers in. Or its going to be a bit embarrassing. Can never be sure who will turn up. Half an hour is enough. 10.07pm.

Friday 12th July 2013

Can’t believe how hot it was when I left the house this morning. Waddy was quite a furnace as well. Had a good day there. Lots of people turned out. Thanks to all the staff for making the open day such an enjoyable experience. I was very impressed with the drama presentation from Jeremy Warr's group and thrilled with the response to the poetry. Always good to see new Waddy writers taking to the mic. Mary and Kimberley read very well indeed. Pleased to see Julie Wilson trying out new work. And hats off to Alex Birch for a storming performance of the Tuesday Writers' collaborative composition Creeping Jesus. And of course it was wonderful to see Chris Hill launch his debut collection "The Purple Prince and the Yellow Canary" – well sequenced choice of poems to promote the publication with a highly impressive delivery. Couldn't help the huge grin on my face whilst watching people circle around him afterwards wanting to buy copies and get them signed. I wanted to do some work this evening but the heat is quite overwhelming. Internet went on the blink again so I watched some cheap zombie film, but kept falling asleep. Won’t be needing blankets on the bed tonight. Might be good to trim some books tomorrow – so long as I don’t sweat on them. Wish I wasn’t so tired. Wish the temperature would drop. 10.37pm.

Saturday 13th July 2013

Twenty-eight years since Live Aid. Listened to Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds “Abbatoir Blues / The Lyre of Orpheus” and “Nocturama” whilst typing this morning. Ordered a high-pressure pump from Amazon for the Rock Shox Tora suspension forks on my 27speed Specialized Rockhopper mountain bike. Will need it for when I start cycling to Jenni’s place next week. Think I need to just chill out this weekend, though. Enough. 12.12pm.