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• Friday, 1st July I have not posted for a few days because for the third time in a year I have lost a massive chunk of this blog.  If I was more sober and sharper it may not have happened, but if I ever sober up and become sharp it will not be for the sake of this pasca blog!
  In the last few days I have been doing the job of company secretary for the City GENT magazine, but only because I am, because there was nobody else left to be bullied into the job.  I have also written new cultural guides to: Bury, Halifax, Darlington, Hartlepool and Rochdale: and a few other bits for the next issue
  I went to see a one man show by Barry Rutter tonight.  It was really good, and I say that despite the fact that Barry did not buy either of my books.  I did, however, sell one to the slim and talented Liz.  I also got my beer quicker than most by running to the Love Apple across the road, buying a bottle and running back, well before the 2nd half started.
  Afterwards I went back to the Love Apple and had a long conversation with my mate William, mostly about his animation, and getting it on the www.  I then got a kebab at the Oasis and arrived home feeling like a right dirty stop out, only to discover it was only 5 minutes after drinking up time!
  
  
Tuesday, 28th June Copy date for the next issue of The City GENT is the day after tomorrow, so today I started writing.  That's early for me!  I have started this one with:

This is the fourth season of the Bradwan Cultural Guide, and may become something of a gardenshed in Bradwan's development.  There are only 6 teams in this Division that Bradwan has not written about already, although one of them is the MK Scabs, and they do not count.  This means Bradwan's creative space may already be so full of old mouldy cultural potatoes and the rusty shovels of invention that we cannot get to the lawnmower of new ideas, and the unwashed creosote brush of creativity may have become too hard to use.

What it looks like when it is finished is anyone's guess.



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Monday, 27th June I had a really good afternoon at Hunslet Moor Primary.  The book making project is likely to work very well.  The only likely problem is that their photocopier is one of the worst I have ever had to use. 

Saturday night Sunday morning, 25/26th June I have just got back from the last event in Wayne Jacobs Testimonial Season.  Wayne gave a wonderfully moving speech, but straight after his wife Racheal got up to present her husband with a gift and made a speeech that topped it.  I wish I had recorded it.  Lots of people can do speeches about nothing with little notice, very few could do one about the simple truthes of of a marriage as well as Racheal did. 
I slipped Wayne a cheque for £140 from sales of the 'printed' book I'd written, which, with the handmade edition, makes £210 to his fund.  A very few blessed my effort with help in sowing the seed, many have bought the bread of the harvest. 



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Friday 24th June The Feast of St John the Baptist The fair day of my mother's village of Karkku.  A day of celebration following the night of burning the old fishing boats on the shore of Lake Ladoga.  It is also the first anniversery of Walburgas forgetting - forgiving. 

Thursday 23rd June, later than the one below I have had a proper day's drinking in Ilkley.  I also got a Folio Society copy of William Cobbett's America from the Oxfam shop.  I reckon the best boozer in Ilkley is the Midland, even if it does have the odd customer who likes playing silly beggers about buying my books, like some reject from a 1930's Boy's Own story.  Talking of Knuts: is there anyone left in England who does not think Tim Henmen is one?  I owe a lot to anger management, thanks to anger management I am managing to be angry at least once a day, although if you'd seen me in the 12 days my site was down you may have doubted my capacity for a calm moment. 

Thursday 23rd June After spending over three hours on the telephone yesterday things are moving on.  It looks like my Priestley Night will live again.  Piping in a steaming meat and potato pie to the tune of Ilkley Moor Ba'Tat; a reading from Priestley's Pie Shop Postscript broadcast; eating the pie and a million calorie pudding; with readings and possibly semi staged pieces from Priestley.  All this should be happening in Ilkley on the night of Tuesday 13th September.  Details to follow. 
I am also going back to Hunslett Moor Primary school next week for what should turn out to be an exciting and fulfilling piece of work.  I am getting their Year 6 class to write and publish a book in the weeks before they leave, called Moving On, based on their memories of the school.  It is very much based on the style and ideas of my hand made Walburgas, and if it works there should be at least 30 copies produced.  I may also lead on to more work, although probably for short story telling sessions in the main. 



• Happy Midsummer's Day.  21st June.

  I watched the sun rise from my attic skylight at 04.42.  The tower blocks of Manchester Road were obviously built to add tone to the new sun on this special day.  Little Horton Taxis sent out 3 cars, which means the year will be prosperous, and there were a record number of magpies, which means lots of folk will be moaning about nothing.  I got a mention on BBC Raido 2's grand Wogan show.  and it made Doctor Pauly Walters laugh! 




• Monday 20th June, Mid-summer's Day Eve My tradition is to go out and watch the sunset tonight and get up to watch it rise. 
  
  
• Sunday 19th June, very early I had a bus Day Rover, so had to get the value of it, so I went to the Drop Kick in Wyke to see a band.  There was no band, so I went to the Melbourne, saw lot of good people I have known a long time, and a really good band called Rent .  One of the best things about them was they had two women who could, and did, sing harmony.  Good days are worth the effort of remembering, for the sake of all the days of fear and form filling, today was a good day. 


• Saturday 18th June The sun is cracking the flags in Bradford and I feel better than I have done all week.  I walked between Shipley and Saltaire.  I have done it hundreds of times along the road or the canal, but