Author diaries

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29 August 2003 Entry: "29th August 2003"

Hello again. Its Friday night and I feel like a small child clad in my pyjamas covered in Body Shop Comfort Rub that is very similar to Vick . Comfort Rub by the way is meant to alleviate women's ailments not that I've got any but the smell is quite nice.
Ive had a busy day on the chalk face trying not very successfully to encourage people to write. First there is Barley Mow Housebound Group who will not be disturbed from their Bingo and raffle. Its my job to elicit bits of memory and text for a book but its not that easy have tried various things . Next week I'll take a tape recorder in. After disappointing fish and chips- I drove all the way from Deckam to Swallwell for them... I went to Bensham Hospital to visit one of my old ladies who is about 80, tiny and today she was tucked up in bed looking a bit miserable. She's waiting for a bed at a supported accomodation place, she's bored striff there's nothing to do there the other women are almost in communicado- no one speaks, there's an atmosphere of stifling decay no wonder she's depressed. However hopefully she'll be out soon. Then as a treat to myself I visited the Baltic saw some fab photos - they almost stop you in their tracks they're more real than real, by Sirkka kottingen- that's not quite her name- sorry Sirkka- but i haven't got anything to copy from Photographs of the East Durham coastal coalfields. Enjoyed a coffee in the caff but was dismayed by the amount of rubbish on the floor- there's something wrong with the management of that place surely. I better sign off as I'm sounding more and more like Hyacinth Bucket as i go go on. Weekend here will be nursing a sore blister, painting a window frame and possibly picking blackberries if I can find a place where there's loads.