Thursday, May 11, 1989

Leaving for Scunthorpe ...

This morning I had no one lined up to take care of my hamster Shannon, but I asked Buffy and she was happy to care for him, which was a stroke of luck. What wasn't a stroke of luck was when I went to get money out of the bank. I put my card in the Barclay's machine before I realized it was closed, and I basically lot my card in the machine.

So I returned to my room and took Shannon up to Buffy's room, grabed my bank things and headed out to Lloyd's bank in the hopes of straightening things out. No problem with that, fortunately. At 2 p.m.,with all of my things packed, we left for Sam's home in Sunny Scunny. It took us about an hour to drive from Hull to Scunthorpe, and once we finally got there, we unwound, and waited for Sam's wife Jenny to return from work.

We ate some crackers to fill us, and then went by taxi to Sam's North Lincolnshire Writer's Circle meeting. It was really a good experience, and I started thinking it might be something worth starting back at Millersville in the fall.

There were seven other writers at the meeting besides Sam and me, and they discussed writing opportunities, successes and then everyone read their latest efforts. After I read "The Feast" to the group, I received an alarmingly enthusiastic response, and Norman Jackson, the groups secretary and most prolific writer in North Lincolnshire, recommended that I submit it to either Radio 4's "Morning Story" or to a magazine called Ad Lib.

I was ecstatic with the response, which has really inspired me to continue writing.

After the meeting we ate a buffet of food and I mainly talked to one member of the group named Robin. Upon returning to Sam's house, we watched TV, including "The Tempest," which was quite heavy but kept us up until after 2 a.m.

Today's fabulous quote is from Doug Schoener: "It's open, ya boob!" No explanation needed.

Pictured: A poster for a concert featuring the band And All Because the Lady Loves, tomorrow at the Hull College Student Union. I'll have to miss it, since I'm in Scunthorpe. Stole a poster from it, though.