BIG WEEK OFF

Monday 29th May 2017

Lie in at Jen’s place. Out to the shops for drinks then back to laze and watch TV. Then an episode of Diagnosis Murder and some New Tricks. Read Glad to Wear Glasses by John Hegley. Half six bus home to watch election party leaders debate. Corbyn held up well. May looked rattled, but didn’t disintegrate as hoped. Bugger! Read some Facebook posts, ate crisps, cheese sandwiches. Checked emails Good to have time away from workshops. 

11.31 pm.

Tuesday 30th May 2017

Yep, totally my intention to stay at the computer all day. Keyed in notes, email responses and made a file of student poems for critique next week. Watched a load of Biketrial UCI World Championship 2012 footage online and two Jack Carthy (Current World Champion) mini-documentaries. Listened to various cover versions of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah. Then some Marc Cohn (no relation – Walking in Memphis). Been trying not to spend money on food but relented and got bread, orange squash and bananas. Watched first episode of The Handmaid’s Tale – pretty fucking bleak stuff. Tomorrow I most certainly won’t be at the desktop. If weather is fine I’ll be cutting the grass. 11.03 pm.

Wednesday 31st May 2017

Downstairs much of the day. Pleased to get grass cut, front and back. Bit of a bastard coz it’s been over three weeks since last time. Nearly two hours, heavy on the wrists and lower back. Tidied the front room a bit, no hovering. Was going to watch a horror film but the BBC election debate was enough for one day. Why the fuck does anyone believe a word the Tories say? Good to see one of them booed and laughed at. Next door neighbour knocked to inform me he’s bought a drum kit and is taking lessons but will try to be considerate. Good to revisit ‘Reckless Chants 23’ zine by Jessie Lynn McMains. 11.30 pm.

Thursday 1st June 2017

Today turned out pretty good. Despite having to spend nearly two hours trying to install software for remote access to the New College Durham website in order to view my payslips and P60 online. Two hours! And it didn’t work because the software recommended by the college isn’t compatible with my operating system. So basically, upgrade the computer to get online info for a tax return. Bus to Durham was a furnace. Opened all eighteen windows on the top deck in order to breathe. Not many people about at Waddy when I arrived. Did my paperwork, reworked a poem from two drafts and had a curry for tea. Poetry Jam was excellent. Bit concerned about low numbers initially, but the intimate gathering was fine, good turns on open floor, the guests all mint. Gritty dark set with some politics and surrealism from Cath Campbell. Fake facts and fictional truth in a big history of the universe twenty-eight minute set from Mike Treasure. Plus a belter of a set from headliner Jess Johnson on prison poetry, fashion mums, kids who think they invented life, plus rap-based identity poem to finish. Great to catch up with my friend and ex-Waddy worker Anna who gave me a lift home. 11.40 pm.

Friday 2nd June 2017

Fuck’s sake so many muppets on election Question Time tonight. Don’t vote for Corbyn coz he isn’t willing to press a button causing a chain reaction that will completely annihilate the entire planet. Let’s vote for the shower that wants to enslave us with extortionate healthcare when the NHS is scrapped along with every other public service. Being nice and reasonable doesn’t seem to compute with voters brainwashed by trickledown theory and their own aspirations to supremacy without their realising they’ll never be accepted as equals by bigwigs no matter how many Tory arses they kiss. Being nice isn’t something these fools understand or respect. Apparently the last JC who tried that ended up nailed to a fucking tree! Light’s out. 11.36 pm.

Saturday 3rd June 2017

Day at home to do some workshop prep for next week. Three sessions of five good to go. Typesetting poems for another group session. Nipped out for some supplies but mainly upstairs at the computer till mid evening then knocked off to watch a film called ‘Aftermath’. Pretty poor post nuclear holocaust mostly set in a cellar. Back upstairs to the computer to discover news of a major incident in London – white van running people down on bridge. Here we go again. 11.35 pm.

Sunday 4th June 2016

Got through quite a bit of work. Type-ups, student feedback, preliminary Waddy booklet layout. Bus schedule's changed for Sundays again. Forty mins wait in my home town to get a bastard bus to Tyneside. Just as well I brought my tea with me. Sat outside a while eating my cheese and tomato sandwich, my Burt’s crisps and my my nutragrain oaty bar. Will be odd to have the day off tomorrow instead of today. Getting a bit breezy so I come back inside the bus station to wait out the final fifteen minutes. I left the house at five. It’s gonna be near seven before I reach Jenni’s place. Me and Jenni are going to the Corbyn rally tomorrow, if it’s still on. All the national election campaigning is suspended today after last night’s London attacks. And all the PM can think to say is we need to censor the fucking internet. Coz cutting 20,000 police officers has nothing to do with it. Selling billions of weapons to the biggest human rights abusers on the planet doesn’t have anything to do with the rising terror threat either. Fuck the Tories. Hope Thursday sees the fuckers hung out to dry. Might read 'Reality, Reality' by Jackie Kay on the bus to Tyneside. 5.53 pm.