09 April. Over quite a number of days I’ve been working on foldering the Commodore, Amiga and PC lyrics into Word Doc folders which when I complete the task will give me the tools to revamp the site and have the above lyrics appear similar in appearance as the Final Chapter. The tabs that exist presently were simply structure more as archive; things need to change. I’m thinking of names for the tabs but computers it won’t be! I’ve been working on my plans for this site, I could promote it to whomever is interested, or I could use it as a tool to show what I can do with the purposes of looking for tunesmiths to collaborate with. Did collaboration work at a studio some years ago and it gave me a reasonable living writing a lyric for artists’ music. We shall see. Some six weeks ago or so I experienced extreme pain in the left side of the bottom of my back, the pain when I moved was extreme and I was house-bound for eight days due to not being able to walk. To cut a novel short I was at the Golden Jubilee yesterday at Clydebank and was in the area experiencing a colonoscopy for just short of an hour. I’ve been advised I may have to get another one in three months if the polyps that they removed are questionable, if not then it’ll be three years. Like I say I was there most of the day, I’m a people watcher and I’ve got a lot of germs for various lyrics to work on just watching different people awaiting whatever they were at the hospital for. The pain that has caused this not nice experience is still there but it’s totally livable, just another one of those pains that comes with age! Still finding lyric writing quite difficult, okay I’ve got a lot of scribbles for ideas like I gained from yesterday, the lack of inspiration is causing a writing block but I’m sure I’ll overcome it. 10 April. It’s a half hour off of midnight and I was doing an 11/9 shift on the day job. I’m home and sitting with a nightcap, a rather large whisky and I’ll then pack it in. The day went well, it’s just I’ve had this itch for far too long to go down the Clyde. I used to go down there most evenings when I finished my shift at Govanhill and talk to the guys. Anyway, to get to the point (I know you’re saying please do) I felt I needed to scratch that itch tonight; so when I got the bus into Glasgow that’s exactly where I went. I had a spare pack of fags, not much money on me. If you’re reading this and you want to know about life, then you need to talk to people, and the salt of the earth people are the homeless; and the real ones live out of site, they don’t beg, most will skipper. Talking to the real homeless breaks my heart, and it’s got a lot of breaks as it is, maybe that’s why I didn’t go down there for so long. Yes there’s the threat, in all communities there’s the good and the bad, but in the most those sleeping and to a great extent living there, they are all genuine people, so far better than me. I talked to four or five tonight, okay I talked to three women and five guys. Just talking about life, making it clear I was supportive but I don’t have answers. They say, they all say they get pestered by social services wanting them to improve their life, I have to say in my experience social services kill people! And I don’t say that easily. I used to be the manager of a homeless unit in Edinburgh and those that we had to report were not supported, they were judged and often criminalized and two people that I knew died due to the judgements taking their own lifes! Talking to the guys tonight has lifted me up, I’m not saying I was down but I was on that direction cause I’ve lost my inspiration, but if these guys that I was talking to tonight can’t ignite that, I do not know what. I’m going to finish my extra large Whyte & Mackay and try and sleep. I’ve tons to do with my three days off and I’ll try and gain something for my writing from tonight, and I’ve got tons of scribbles in my notepad that I’m sure I’ll be able to use. 13 April. It’s nearly 10am and I’ve did a post to the campaign site. I’ve being doing a lot of work in copying and pasting the contents of Amiga folders to Word Docs. I’m going to revamp the whole area and change the tab names, polish it up a bit, didn’t appreciate how time-consuming it is but I’m getting there. I’m going to continue that work today. Yesterday morning I spent a chunk of my time with my son and my grand-daughter, it was great just chatting out in their garden. Played a bit of football with Violet, she’s two but she still beat me. We then went to Morrisons and she pushed this wee trolley whilst Barry went ahead and did his shopping. She made a bee line straight for this box full of bunnies, had to get her one, the thing is bigger than she is and it just squeezed into her wee trolley. We scampered around the aisles, aye a great and magical time. Okay, I’d better get on with gaining the lyrics to Word Docs. 16 April. I finished a sleepover on the day job yesterday, got home for around 3pm and sat at this desk writing ideas, I started the writing process actually on the bus into town ten minutes after leaving work using my wee notepad, copied them into my notebook when I got to my desk. Aye the inspiration was with me, got two good lyrics to develop, unfortunately for this place they’ll be for my private folder, but I got a good few other ideas, I shall hope to continue that work in a wee while, but I want to get a contents list of all the folders I’ve copied to Word Doc. I had better get on with it. 17 April. It’s been a seriously frustrating day. I’ve copy and pasted BO, BP and BQ and today I intended doing B, D, F and G of the Amiga bundle, but there’s a formatting error that I cannot correct. Spent three odd hours trying different things. Did a chat with the hosting server, my first use of this asset for this place, not happy, no good. I will resolve the issue, I always do, but it’s going to take me longer than I anticipated. I’ll place the links of the lyrics I have copied and pasted, and leave the others for now. I need to change the tabs to something a bit more accurate. I did good with my writing yesterday, did a good bit of pacing up and down, but there’s a lot I’ve gained I can work on. I’m going to Gosport next week, I hope to create new lyrics and develop the lyrics I have. My inspiration is still with me though last night I was finding it tougher than my work on Tuesday, not to worry, such is life. 22 April. Yesterday I printed out the lyrics from C4 and C5, there’s 6 Campaign Lyrics, 11 from the Descriptive Project, 6 from the Flatsound Project, 9 from the Love Project and 14 from my personal project that doesn’t get placed here. I’m off to Gosport tomorrow and I intend taking them with me and see if I can improve upon them. I’ve sorted the tabs out to somethiing more accurate. Still not happy with the posting system, not sure if I want one to exist, if anyone wants to contact, there’s the email address, we’ll see. 23 April. I got up at 4am, couldn’t sleep though had the alarm set for 5am, off to Gosport this morning. I posted a video file on the campaign site this morning which I do each morning. There’s now over four thousand users, there was 3.300 odd at the beginning of the month, so I’m doing something right and I haven’t been spending too much time on it, strange thing the internet. There’ll be no work on the campaign site until I come home, far too much thinking and writing to be done with this place. My inspiration is weakening but I’ll fight through it. 24 April. It’s nearing 7am and I’ve been awake since 3am, sitting at the desk where the kettle and bits and bobs sit in a hotel room. I got ideas for the 11 Descriptive lyrics on the trains to get here. The first train got me to London Euston and the second got me from Waterloo to Portsmouth Harbour then a ferry across to Gosport. I digress as usual. Managed to gain 8 Descriptive lyrics for D. Had a shave and shower then a wander through Gosport, real quiet and nearly everyone about was on a bike! Back in the hotel and making myself a coffee then I’ll meet up with my pal Andrew and we’ll see what we get up to, after we’ve had a breakfast ofcourse. 25 April. Was at Lee-on-Solent yesterday, got some good ideas I’ve scribbled down. Had a big chunk of a vegan chocolate caramel cake, couldn’t resist. Had this ice cream cone that to scoff you have to surrender your nose, beautiful. What I’m finding brilliant about Gosport, infact England and it was the same when I visited Wales a few years ago, public toilets! In Glasgow we lost all that to the battle of addiction years ago. This morning I’ve been working on the Flatsound Project which is all about Agoraphobia. Later on my plan is to get the ferry to Portsmouth and explore the port and the shops. 26 April. It’s nearly 4pm and yesterday found me getting the ferry into Portsmouth, a beautiful warm day and wandered about for a couple of hours, thoroughly enjoyed the place and the people, did a lot of people watching. That morning I got a Vegan breakfast out of Witherspoons, just for the experience and enjoyed it. Sorted five of the Love lyrics out yesterday and gained a lot of scribbles for my notebook. Today there’s still one to sort and I’ve been wandering around Gosport, another beautiful day and I’ve defo got material for the Descriptive Project. The people are really friendly here. I went a walk along the High Street at 6am and they were building a market, by 9am the whole of the street was full of stalls. The atmosphere was like the Barras used to be like years ago although without the thieving. Thoroughly enjoyed another day so far. 28 April. It’s Monday and also go home day, it’s nearing 4am. I’ve been messing about with the cuisine, on Saturday 26th I had a vegetarian all day brunch for dinner; 2 fried eggs, 3 vegan sausages, baked beans and chips, lovely. Yesterday morning I had the American breakfast – 2 fried eggs, 2 hash browns, maple cured bacon, 2 Linconshire sausages, 4 pan cakes and maple syrup, excellent and I didn’t make a mess. I sorted 7 of the personal lyrics yesterday morning, I’m maybe too close so I’m now looking at the Campaign Lyrics. Yesterday was a beautiful sunny and warm day, the English sun is lovely and warm, seriously love it. I was doing a lot of writing, particularly when I was sitting at a bench at the pond. And so I’ve now completed the 300 page notebook which I started on 27 February, so it contains 2 months of my writing, started a new notebook. I’ve got a coffee to slurp and campaign lyrics to look through. It’s now near 3pm and I’m on the Glasgow train, pulling up at Lancaster. I was out for a walk at 5am and listening to the Gosport birds, quite a chorus, I watched the Sky change from black to blue. I sorted the Campaign Lyrics out before leaving Gosport, sitting on the Glasgow train working on my personal lyrics, there’s two so far that I’ll be moving to the Love Project. Leaving England I have to say I’d move to the south of English sun at the drop of a hat. 29 April. I’m back at my desk, I think I’ve brought the sun home with me. My inspiration is an individual and that will continue, but warm south of England is my new one, gained a lot from the good weather and the people’s reaction to it. I’ve got ideas about writing a book, but that will be down the line, I need to get this place sorted first. I completed the task this morning of assessing and progressing the lyrics from C4 and C5. There’s 4 of 6 from the Campaign Project to move forward, there’s 8 of 11 from the Descriptive Project, there’s 5 of 6 from the Flatsound Project and all 9 move forward in the Love Project. My personal project which will not be placed here had 14 lyrics, 11 of them are moving forward to D folder on the pc, but two of them I’m moving to the Love Project. I’ll sort the folders out on the computer just now and print them out to study for further improvement, I’ll do that today. Once that task is done I shall place them here in a D4-5 tab, obviously excluding my personal folder. 30 April. It’s 2.30pm. I didn’t get any chance to get out the door yesterday, a beautiful day and warm by all accounts, too busy at the pc, my eyes were stinging at the end of the day staring at the screen. Same story today although yesterday was all about getting the lyrics sorted and placed here, today has been more about gaining video files for the campaign website, and whilst I was doing that I was sorting this study out. I can’t believe the junk that I had in the desk drawers, in the filing cabinet, on the bookshelf, anywhere I could put bits of papers or whatever, I managed to do it. Oh well, sorted. Tomorrow I’ll be tackling my wardrobe cause it doesn’t just hide clothes, there’s all sorts of boxes probably of junk on the floor of the thing! I need to do a shop so I’ll be going down town, I’ll also have to go to the west end and take my guitar with me, I got it re-strung in February, last month a string broke, took it to a shop in Glasgow; this morning I discover another string has broke! It’s not as if I’m doing heavy strumming, I’m at the basics stage of simply learning chords and no need to batter the strings. I’ll get a bit of sun in about an hour, I’ve dishes to do and it might be an idea ironing something to put on. Ah, I’m forgetting all the bin bags that have the junk which are in the hall, and the boxes, I’m two floors up and I’ll be up and down the stairs a few times!