A rebel without a clue.

Porridge at 7:30. Coffee from 6. Off to collect Lola for 8am. Need to be back on the bus to Leeds at 10:30 from Deighton Road to see to letting the engineer in to fix the boiler... On the 9:30 back to Leeds, an hour earlier. At the flat for noon. Made a nice lunch - carbonara with extra smoked back bacon. I've had no bacon in months and it's been on my mind recently. Ran out of cooking pans so turned to the two mess tins I've had for many a season... Steam baked with honey. And added purple sprouting broccoli at the end. Lush. But the shop bought carbonara sauce had zero flavour - even with added lardons, onions and garlic ... Poor show Sainsbury's (cheap because it's lacking ingredients)?  The engineer is here at 3. I've been cleaning the flat properly between meditation and his arrival. Just having a brew: North Star Ethiopia Goro Natural. The carpet in the front room appears to be disintegrating... Bath then bed... Fantastic. *** Tuesday, Depressed. But it is...

After Easter Tuesday, It's foggy. I slept through until 7:30am. Got up just once during the night for a visit and across the back along York Street a fire engine and a thick fog. Made the bed. Chilling. Coffee. It's 7:45. Bin men are operating; pressed against the windowpanes. Washed and heading to the allotment. 8:45am. Back from a lot of work on the allotment, lunch and then Lola. Got my stuff together and caught the number 7. ... And guess what - back to the flat directly from the No.7 kbus. First time for two weeks I've managed not to via into a pub. Can I manage 3 days? Nice bowl of rice and beans, 2 chillies, a bunch of spring onions, five cloves of garlic, a little masala and a little mixed spice and Marigold's veg stock. Simple. Washed clothes. 20:30pm chapter 8: the journey back. *** Wednesday, I appear to be fully rested at 5:30am(in old currency 4:30am) and I didn't retire until around nine last night after several sections of chapter 8. Returning to the ...

Monday, On the 7am to Wetherby from Cross Stamford Street. Awoke at 5am, but during the night there was a helicopter circling around for quite some time so the night wasn't a solid kip. Pressure cooked some urid dal for dinner. Left them on the hob. On Saturday I got a urid dal spice blend from Abu Bakr so that's my tea this evening: just need some veg to add to the mix. Just about at East Keswick and it's raining. No allotment I suppose... Unless I just take the cardboard up there with Lola? Or wait for it to clear? It's not heavy. We walked up to the allotment, behind the junior school to Nidd Approach, through the footpath behind Priest's Hill across the little park between Aire Road and Ainsty and up the ginnel between the bungalows on King's Meadow Mews, then the wooded area to the edge of Millennium Field and then across and down Northfield Place - Lola took me for a walk. We were wet. ... But it got heavy and persistent and my mother was moaning. So I got...

Monday, Getting ready to leave the flat for Wetherby. Listening to another In Our Time  episode about Prester John. I last listened to it in 2015 after I was recommended the broadcast on BBC4 by George who used to manage in the tiny kitchen at The Brunswick. I've been listening to an episode of the broadcast since then. Nearly 10 years. Ten years next year I've been in the flat. I got barred from NB for five years back then too. I was in a real mess. Much more than I am now, I guess. I saw nothing good: apart from Lola... And the promised sunrise over yonder horizon. But nothing outside can make me happy if I am not happy in my head. The power of the mind. And I am in op of it... Even if it seems I am not!?! 8am X99 Bus. Unpacked back. Lola Allotment. It's now 15:25. Never stopped. Lola. Packed backpack back to Leeds on the X99 it's 17:25. Not stopped. Hopped off the bus at 1800. Groan men obsessing about the GHz of their side bus, gfx card and processor. They even brou...

Monday, Put washing on the rack to dry. Made a coffee. Proving some bread. Day to myself in Leeds. Miserable. But I am alive and happy. Was invited to Wetherby to spend the day. A surprise.  The left foot is beginning to get me down. No matter which insoles I am wearing it is painful. Been out with Lola for an hour, made lunch and headed to the allotment for an hour, but the clouds threaten rain and the earth is very very saturated from Sunday's downpour. Coffee and chill until 3. May take Lola for another meander, but unlikely. Tuesday I think. Or will I see Robert then head to Leeds? I forecast uncertainty. Took Lola for another meander. Ate some Linda McCartney veggie items with rocket after I'd eaten some nice soup mum had made - but it was made with chicken stock! She never said until I was half way through the bowl. Feeling a bit chilly from something so crawled into bed. Might be time to tune out? Just eaten three spoonfuls of live yogurt as it always brings me around? E...

Monday, I've done only good stuff today. Sorted out all my debts in with a 60 day Breathing Space, from the Insolvency Service, which might get me back to where I was at the beginning of last summer. It begins on the 5th of March and stretches to the 3rd of May... If I fail there is a Debt Management Plan to fall back on.  Took clothes to the Heart Foundation charity in the Merrion Centre. Walked along the river to Whitehall Ro KOad from Leeds City Station and went down to the canal and followed it to Leeds Dock and Leeds Armoury where I got a bin liner of spent coffee grounds from North Star, after playing with an excitable tinkling puppy - all over my new 'conditioned' boots - and bought a half dozen eggs from Tesco. Walked passed Leeds Minster and thought about going to the D&D, but went to Forward Leeds instead - the addiction charity. Have an appointment in April to get some help: detox. I need no alcohol for the next 28 days ... I did it once before (over the Chri...

Monday, Awake at 5. Solid night's kip. Birds singing as spring approaches. No money from the council. No money until Thursday. Got a ticket to return to Leeds this afternoon/early evening as I didn't use it yesterday. Toilet. Can't return to Wetherby until Thursday morning anyway. Podcast - Free Thinking/On the Silver Globe. 6:10. Second coffee. A gulf opens between Portugal and England. The island drifts away from the continent for the time being... I am on my own and must content myself in the pitiful raft with the voices of division. We are in a land dividing itself like never before. Whatever happened to unity in the United Kingdom... Porridge. Not yet 7am. Blue skies. Should I go to the allotment first and do Lola this afternoon... Picked Lola up from Emma's. Walked up to Mark Lane in Kirk Deighton and back to mum's via Quarry Hill Lane. Went to the allotment at 10. Went for two pints and two chapters in town. Had a tin of mushroom soup and took Lola for her se...