Well that was a right fucking kick in the teeth, wasn't it?

Monday 4th May 2015

Morning pages are a bit of a drag these days. So long as I get prepped for the week I’ll be happy. It would be great to do a book-making session at Mind on Thursday but I’m out three evenings this week and won’t have time to get all the stuff together. A lot of what I write in these daily ramblings is just hot air. Something to fill space. Much of what I do is to fill space. I want to read my zine book, some Attila the Stockbroker and Geoff Hattersley. Anyway, it’s breakfast time. Bank Holiday. I’ll get a bit done today. Doubt there’ll be much online action till tomorrow. 

9.34 am.

Tuesday 5th May 2015

Somewhat exhausted on the bus to Durham. Thought I was going to pass out. Got all my photocopying done and pulled off afternoon session okay. The course is called Writing Workshops (not my title) so that’s what I’m doing – workshops, not lessons. Had to do some terrorism prevention training online. Hoped to do it at Waddy but computer suite machines wouldn’t access the site and printer wasn’t working –  needed to print the certificate, then scan it and email to the college. Pretty decent standard week two of Creative Writing evening course. Read quite a bit of Attila the Stockbroker’s UK GIN DEPENDENCE PARTY on the bus home. Hoped to be in bed an hour ago but that online training held me up. Anyway, wrote a few pieces today, so that’s okay. No word on final requirements for little anthologies. Hope to be done by June. Off to bed. 

11.25 pm.

Wednesday 6th May 2015

Woke surprisingly early but lay awake a good while. Quick shave then lemon curd swirl porridge before a casting off of workshop ballast then bus to Consett. Bought ibuprofen and gel pens at Home Bargains; and a copy of the Daily Mirror purely for the front cover. Even an ex-Tory prime minister is calling the current government useless. Read that on the bus to Durham and some work prep for the session. Sentence stems, 6 sentence paragraph, ‘8th birthday’ conflict stems, development of old marathon writing. Lunchtime the usual game of sardine Twister in the staff kitchen. Lentil and bacon soup. No quiz due to election discussion. Six of us this afternoon at Cambian Appletree doing words from the pool, short fiction Sensations, Tanka and Zoo Plaques. Read backs. Now on the bus to Gateshead. Going to have tea with Jenni then off to Whitley Bay for Jibba(ish). Might get up and do a poem. We’ll see. Need to rehearse my set for Alphabetti Soup. Not sure if I’m staying at Jen’s afterwards or going back to Consett. 3.55 pm.

Good night at Jibba(ish). Enjoyed all the guests. Especially well done to Alix Alixandra for doing two sets – music in first half, poems to close second. Julian Lee was funny. I think he’d be good at standard spoken word too. Just telling stories. Strong memorized set from David O’Hanlon. Always good to hear his work. Mr Darcy’s is a sweet little venue. I did Father’s Ghost and Oliver Dearest. Thanks to Jenni’s friend Joanne for the ride back to Newcastle. Thanks to Jenni and Mr Darcy’s for putting on the gig. Just ate chips and gravy and now on the 45 back to Consett. 11.26 pm.

Thursday 7th  May 2015

WORK-LOG: Morning Pages. Bag check. Session at Mind a repeat of yesterday. Prep work for Jane Burn’s pamphlet. Read-through of poems Simon gave me to check over. Meeting with Jane went well. Poetry Jam a bit of a rollercoaster. 10.42 pm.

THANKS: to Poetry Jam guests for sets, everyone who read and performed. To Jane for frank discussion on poetry ethics. Jenni and Sheila. Chuffed to be on the bus now. 10.54 pm.

Friday 8th May 2015

Seems pretty pointless doing an entry today. We all know what happened. Lots of us are devastated by the election outcome. Say bye to NHS, Human Rights and public services; say hello to more zero hours contracts, benefit sanctions and food banks. What a bastard! Took me most of the day to get any work started. Friends online have said likewise. I’m still finding it hard to compose a sentence. Finally got some pix from last night’s gig online and some work-related messages back and forth. Tomorrow I’ll get notes up to date and finalise the set for Sunday’s Alphabetti Soup gig. 

10.41 pm.

From FACEBOOK: Thanks to everyone who came down to Poetry Jam last night. Such a great turn out. A truly eclectic mix of readings and performers. Some hilarious moments and some quite scary. Thanks to all the guests and jammers, the lovely audience, Waddington Street Centre for the room and Fergus for set-up and working the cafe…

Saturday 9th May 2015

Bit better day. Managed to get some work typed in and finalise a fifteen minute set for Alphabetti Soup. Lots of online research and little else. Big conversation with Jenni about election result. Don’t know what the fuck is going to happen in the coming months but it will be far from rosy for a lot of people. Now watching film Limitless. Been eating crisps and shortbread and midget gems. Looking forward to gig tomorrow. 10.46 pm.

Sunday 10th May 2015

Morning pages headmash:

Planning for the week ahead. Get the journal stuff transcribed, keyed in and up online. Get covers sorted for the two anthologies and Jane’s collection. Get student collection sequenced. Book guests for July Poetry Jam. Revise choice and consequence workshop for Wednesday. Maybe a half marathon Tuesday. Get Newton Aycliffe booklet printed at Waddy. Begin thinking about contents of Laughter to Split Glass.  Also get some copies of Brainard monograph made up. And maybe one or two more ‘Sunshine’ – currently down to the last three. Order paper for Jane. 900 sheets of off-white hammered vellum would be nice. And 120gsm copier for Newton Aycliffe. Seen a lot of plagiarism and copyright issues in recent days – really, really need to be sure cover image group chose for Wednesday evening anthology isn’t going to cause us problems. Want all of this stuff sorted for half-term. I’d like to go into June with only ANOMALIES 1989-2014 and ‘Laughter...’.  I’d like to find time to tidy the house – all the floor and window sill clutter sorted. Even if it means piling up a load of stuff in the back bedroom. I got ‘Fixer Eraser’ by Jonas in the post yesterday. And BRAINSCAN 31 by Alex Wrekk. Both zines. I like the look of them. Read about half of Jonas on the bus to Jen’s last night. Very pleased to get out of my place for the remainder of the weekend. We both needed the big election discussion. Having given a couple of weeks to it, I think I need to focus on what sustains me. Hope things can remain stable enough to continue. I don’t think there’s a gig this Thursday, which means the only evening out is Tuesday for our evening class. So, besides having to mow the lawn at some point I should have plenty of time to catch up on stuff. Hope I hear from PCP this week – I want that little Newton Aycliffe anthology out soon. All I need to do with Jane’s is shuffle and reproof the running then add a baseline – Talking Pen, ISBN, Price – to cover. And then it’s good to go. A pack of black 100gsm endpaper and aforementioned 100gsm vellum for pages. More pages to add to ANOMALIES then on a bright day get a print-out of signatures and film book-making process. I’m a bit pissed off that the replacement toner cartridge I bought for the new laser printer doesn’t print duplex without scuff marks. Total shit! Only thing I can think is to print one side and let it cool down then try again on the other a while later. Anyway, more than enough. Will need to get more notes on the Independent Learning Programme forms for Waddy courses and think about a booklet for MIND group at some point. But at present, unless it’s paid work, I’ll struggle to find the time. Hoping to a good gig this evening. Hope I can get one for June – that would mean a feature gig every month from January to September. Ok. Breakfast. 10.46 am.

LATER: Nice lie in then prep list in the morning pages. View the latest updates on Facebook then prepared a salmon and baked potato salad thing for me and Jenni for lunch. Had a good gig at Alphabetti. Set went okay. Great to see Arabella Arnott onstage in a short play, strong preview of pieces from AJ McKenna’s forthcoming Edinburgh show.  Superb guitarist, a song from Wilf Stone and spoken word on pigeons from Ali Prichard. Good to catch Richard Atkins book launch set at Bar Loco with AJ and Jenni. The most encores I’ve ever seen at a solo poetry gig ever. Well done to him for keeping it relaxed. Nice chat afterwards. Now on the 45 to Consett. It’s going to be another late one. 11.21 pm.