Snotty Beak Stanza Week Blogsite Delight

Monday 15th February 2016

As Withnail would say, I’ve got a bastard behind the eyes. Came on about eight this evening, with still quite a bit of stuff to do. Been asleep on the couch but head still sore. Jen asked if I was going to watch my nonsense (The X-Files) on 5+1. But the sooner to bed the sooner the better I’ll be. Got all the work prepped for tomorrow. Student feedbacks are done. Took nearly three hours this morning to read a couple of short stories and write notes on them. One was over four thousand words long. Pleased the others were considerably shorter. If there’s still a doughnut in the fridge I might eat it. Done a bit more prep for the blogsite pages but it’ll be Thursday before I can get any further forward, I think. Anyway, I haven’t thrown up, so I can’t be that bad. Ok. 10.08 pm.

Tuesday 16th February 2016

Writing half-marathon at Waddy this afternoon. Got my seven new first drafts keyed in straight after the session. One of tomorrow’s students turned up tonight. Wanted to show me work but I didn’t have time coz I was still prepping for tonight: a bit on writing zones, settings for fiction and dialogue composition. I felt okay physically till the bus home. Maybe it’s the onset of cold. Read some stuff on pace in crime novels. Bus driver was chatting about doing overtime to pay for two Beyonce tickets. Never been to a concert before but his wife wanted to go. Said he only listens to music on the radio. Really? But then again, I haven’t been on a proper holiday since 1976 and have never owned a passport. Each to their own. House is freezing. 11.07 pm

Wednesday 17th February 2016

Woke too soon and full of cold. Vented spleen in morning pages, keyed in a backlog of stuff. Submitted poems to Thinking Man at The Fat Damsel magazine. Prepped for this evening and did a canny workshop for the Colour your Life gang. Some basic character sketches, some openings for stories and we read a great story by Rachael H Dixon about a car crashing into a supermarket. Saw some great footage of David O’Hanlon from last night's Stanley Fringe Burns Pit Disaster gig that I couldn’t make it to. Thanks to Simon Green for the camera work. Saw a clip of Alix Alixandra playing the Uke and singing her heart out. Online messages to Jenni then posted a clip of 62 year old skateboarder Neal Unger to my Facebook page. Ate a bit of dead pig wrapped in pastry and had three oranges this evening. Hoping to be in better fettle for the weekend. 11.12 pm.

Thursday 18th February 2016

The Goose in Newcastle is sparsely populated this afternoon. One Day I’ll Fly Away by Randy Crawford on the sound system. Maybe people just don’t like the music. No-one at the bar. Then a woman appears with a mild mannered complaint about only getting one sausage on her son’s bangers and mash… I’ve only just woken up. The bus journey was seventy minutes and the Wi-Fi wasn’t working. I don’t know if Jenni is on her way… I’ve not had a carvery for a while. And I’ve eaten little today. There’s a fly on table 44 and ‘Geordie-Wham’ man is telling us what could have been and all about his guilty feet. I have a pint of blackcurrant flavoured water and a scratchy pen. I want something’s flesh. Not this bastard fly or ant that keeps getting in my way… I did a pretty solid set of morning pages today so I edited and posted online. Then went out to satisfy my sweet tooth with a stash of cakes from Barrys Bargain Store; curry and big soups too. I’m still a bit sniffle-y but really want to be at the Stanza this evening. Jazz Riot, Kirsten Luckins and Jess Johnson. It’ll be cracking… It’s a little after five and I think I may have picked the wrong booth. I can hear a girl talking about what he got and what she got on Sunday. A piece of ass – with a picture of a donkey on her Valentine’s Card. A hat like Jenni’s multi-coloured one atop a white jacket just zoomed by the window but I’m probably mistaken. I often am. 5.07 pm.

All the bigly food: turkey, beef, Yorkshire pudding, stuffing, cabbage, cauliflower, carrots, mash, roast potatoes, cranberry sauce, mint sauce and rich thick gravy. Jenni has half a chicken. We power down the food and talk shop. She has quite a bit of facilitation work coming up, has to dash off for a meeting before The Stanza. She gives me a hug, leaves – then comes back and says, “Couldn’t resist; can you hear what’s playing?” Maria Carey – All by Myself. Ha-ha! You couldn’t make it up. 5.56 pm.

Canny night at The Stanza. Hosted this month by Megan Pattie and Alix Alixandra. Must confess I was a little tired initially so I kind of lost quite a bit of the first half until Jazz Riot came on. They were magnificent. After the break Jess Johnson sat on a chair and read some pretty hard-hitting monologues / poems about domestic violence but made us laugh on the bits in between and the lighter piece about stupid people looking great at half eight on the school run. Good to see Ken Creen, David O’Hanlon Jenni and others on the open mic. Plus a sensational set from the supremely talented Kirsten Luckins, including work from her debut full-length Burning Eye collection "The Trouble with Compassion" and ending with the gobsmackingly fantastic 'Primavera'. Resident musical duo Renata and Trev played us out and previously in and all around. I’m now truly loaded with cold and not looking forward to half-hour walk when I get off this bus at around ten past midnight. 11.23 pm.

Friday 19th February 2016

After a lethargic morning into afternoon I seem to have got myself going around teatime and have done the Poetry Jam event page, researched loads of freelance stuff and managed to stay warm by wrapping myself up in the slanket. I had a look at some e-book ideas, but I don’t really think the sort of stuff I do will work well in that format… My nose isn’t running as much today but my throat is fucking terrible. Have spent the last coupe of hours adding links to my little website. Going to put more pix into the pages, need ‘workshops’ content and gig listings... Good to hear from Jenni this evening. Sent her an update on the site. Time really ran away with me. I had a look at Happy Valley. The last series blew me away. I might wait and watch a bunch of new episodes back to back on iPlayer. Ok. 11.52 pm.

Saturday 20th February 2016

Felt like I had a cactus in my throat this morning. Slow day. A little better this evening. Keyed in work and tweaked web pages. Eating tinned food mainly. Checked out some old Mission memorabilia online and some Toyah pix. Haven’t read much. Had to come away from the computer for an hour due to eye strain. Enjoyed listening to PiL, Adele and Queen. Want to watch Happy Valley but it’s too late now. Was half-two when I went to bed this morning. 11.38 pm.

Sunday 21st February 2016

Late rise after a bad dream about house repossession and murder that genuinely freaked me the fuck out for a while. Got four hundred words out of it, so not all bad. Been doing book work today. Made a page of Talking Pen related publications for my new blog, website, whatever it is. Will probably be another week or two before it’s all tweaked and ready to link to Facebook. Put out a shout for another writing marathon for late March. Still a little groggy but ham sandwiches, lemon cake and custard, and a slanket have helped. 10.15 pm.