2007 - Jesus Mound- Andrew

July. Kitsch'n Cafe. I think it took two weeks for my brain to recover from finishing Yellow Dawn, and even now, a fortnight into my stay in Newcastle, I wasn't feeling like burning any candles. Even so, I don't take to relaxing very well... so I made the daily walk up to Kitsch'n and occupied myself with writing out on pen and paper the notes for Dog Eat Dog: that's the Yellow Dawn novel I started to plan last August when I was in the South of France.

This picture is Andrew. One of the Jesus Mound locals. He comes into Kitsch'n every morning after a work out at the gym and orders this fruit smoothie with enough ginger to pickle an Egyptian... the man excudes hyperactivity... this is the day he got a phone call whilst chatting to me, the caller was about to head off to Poland for a party... Andrew decides he's going to go too, "Come pick me up," he tells the caller and hangs up. Andrew looks at me, "Hey, do you want to come to Poland for a party?"

I could.

But one of the main reasons for staying an extra 2 weeks was the cats. They've never had to go without human company... so like some sap, I felt guilty about the idea of leaving them alone for two weeks with only the neighbour feeding them in the morning and evening.

So, I didn't go to Poland for a party.

2007 - Jesus Mound- Les

July. This is Les, my mum's neighbour. Let me tell you about "The Strange Story of Grave Digging in Jesus Mound."

I came home one night, poured a glass of wine and threw myself down onto the comfortable sofa bed, in Dad's room, which has been my home for the last 2 weeks. Flicked on the TV and found The Burbs was on. One of my favourite flicks to watch on repeat. I was chuckling away at Tom Hanks looking down from his bedroom window, watching his neighbours, the Klopeks, out in the pouring rain with lanterns, hacking away at their garden with shovels, as if digging up a grave...

... the commercial break comes on and I shuffle through to the kitchen for a refill of wine. Outside the rain is still hammering down. Something catches my eye. A flickering light, coming from near the bottom of next door's garden (Les' side). I squinted through my own reflection in the window but couldn't see a thing. I turned off the kitchen lights and could now clearly see the flickering glow of...a lantern, and what looked like a figure out there in the rain. Eh? What?

I hurried upstairs to mum's room, cracked open the window and took a better look. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Almost an exact duplicate of the scene on the television a few minutes earlier... one man, dressed in a heavy coat slick and glistening with rain, standing near an electric lantern, weilding a shovel and digging up the earth. Mum keeps a rifle next to her bed (don't ask) which has a telescopic sight. I grabbed up the rifle, checked the safety was on, shoved the stock into my shoulder and peered through the scope for a better look. There was Les, the neighbour, digging something up out of the earth...he'd reached a point where he'd cleared away the top layer of soil and was now carefully scraping away the deeper soil so as not to damage whatever was down there. The features of his face were creased with concentration, there was an urgency and desperation in his expression.

I couldn't believe this.

I stowed the rifle back in its place, hurried downstairs, pulled on my boots and a raincoat and headed out into the back garden... Les didn't hear me approach because of the rain, so when I muttered BOO right behind him the guy shrieked like a girl and nearly expired from a heart attack on the spot. The shovel that had been in his hand ended up about two metres away as his whole body convulsed in shock. I was in a humerous mood but also slightly wary I was about to discover the nice-bloke-who-lives-next-door was digging up some forgotten child...or worse?

Les explained what was going on and I nearly fell over laughing.

Les pointed at the soft form, wrapped in plastic he was digging up... I went over and took a closer look. At that moment, a door in the back of Les' house opened up and a large stocky man started striding towards us. What the fek? Who was this?

As the large men stepped into the lantern light I saw his face was scrunched up with some painful emotion.

Oh my God...

I stepped away respectfully as the man dropped down onto his knees next to the hole, and started gently clearing away the last of the rain-sodden earth with his finger... his shoulders shuddering with quiet sobs.

You see, dear reader, Les, my very nice neighbour, had agreed to look after this man's most treasured pet a few days earlier... a big, floppy eared rabbit. Unfortunately for Les, the rabbit had caught some kind of virus and died. Les felt terrible, especially with it dying on his watch. When the man had returned from his trip and found out Les had done the decent thing, and buried it, the man demanded to have the body of his bunny back. Apparently the man knows a taxidermist.

I spoke with Les today. The rabbit, it seems, is about to become immortalised... stuffed... to sit forever on the guy's desk.

Life is surely stranger than fiction sometimes, I swear.

2007 - Jesus Mound- Mike C

July. I've known Mike since I first discovered Kitsch'n Cafe, on the advice of my sister, back in October 2004. Back then I was just starting 3-months away from the Agency, and writing Iron Man Project. Mike was just starting a major IT project, a physical security key that he and St John were developing.

The initial prototypes have drawn significant interest and a lot of praise, prompting them to invest their time and resources into a much more rounded product... St John is now living between Newcastle and Mumbai, in India, handling marketting and publicity, whilst Mike fights get the coding finishd before their funds run dry...

...so it's around now that Mike is dealing with a lot of pressure, but, one of things you can seriously admire Mike for is his character in the face of hardship... he square's up to it, braces himself and ploughs forward.

The next few months are a critical period.

2007 - Jesus Mound- Sam "Dimple Chin"

July. Kitsch'n Cafe. Sam part owns the place with St John... but has the main responsibility of managing the business. She and her man are about to head out to Serbia for a music festival, but they're dangerously thin on staff... so Sam's currently hunting people to put in place before she vanishes for two weeks. We worked out we've known each other for about 23 years. Eek!

2007 - Jesus Mound- Sidney...demanding food again.

July. For such a slim cat, he sure eats enough for two. I've even seen him gobble down a meal and then nudge his brother out the way to eat his too. Any time I'm in the kitchen, Sidney thinks this means he's about to get more food and goes in to meow-and-prod mode. Obviously a result of mum spoiling the bugger...

2007 - Jesus Mound- Sidney...eats my camera.

July. Of course, once Sidney thinks he's looking at something edible, the nice doe-eyed innocence is shredded as the true nature of the walking-stomach rips forward...

...of course, camera straps are not the most edible things in the world.

2007 - Jesus Mound- Sidney...eats my finger.

July. There must be some wise old fisherman's wives tale about the danger of playing with cats.

2007 - Jesus Mound- Sophie C

July. Following from the Be Safe gig I find myself becoming enmeshed with the Be Safe crowd. Phone calls with Sophie; text sessions with Alex; "wall-writing" with Helen; and E-mails with Laura (now back in Ohio and wandering what the heck she's doing there). From one night out with Freddy, I have a vibrant and diverse collection of characters to engage with, socialise and get to know. Sophie is a solicitor in a law firm, doesn't seem to get to bed before midnight and is living life at a 1,000 miles per hour.

2007 - Jesus Mound- Bobby & the enemy dog (Jessie)

July. None of us can work out why, but, Jessie is obsessed with the idea of making friends with the cats, Sid & Bob. She keeps coming over, looking at them and whinning, and howling softly. The cats arch their backs, hiss, growl and eventually lunge forward in these incredible attacks... sinking fangs and claws into Jessie's rear end. In one way it is not funny, but for Pete and I one hot lazy afternoon, sitting there with bottles of beer on the bench...it was the funniest thing in the world to watch this stupid dog getting battered, and then coming back for more?!!!

2007 - Jesus Mound- Sidney, Bobby, and the enemy cat

July.

2007 - Jesus Mound- Derek Indiana

July. Kitsch'n Cafe. It's been really nice getting know Derek. He's been a familiar face in Kitsch'n for almost as long as I've been coming here (November 2004). Back then he had the same slightly haunted - stress ragged look that I felt my own face was displaying. So we've both been going through a "journey".

He's picked up the nickname Indiana because of his recent investigative expose on a Goya painting in Toledo. If correct, then he's found something that nobody else has in all the years the painting has been on display.

2007 - Jesus Mound- Mike C

July. Mike came round for a heart to heart, and then talked about weapons & tactics. We drank big mugs of tea and swapped stories about adventures in the wilds... his being rather more extreme and visceral than mine (SA80: ambush: close range spray)

2007 - Jesus Mound- Les

July. This is the man who was digging up a grave in his backgarden in the dead of night, and pouring rain.

2007 - Jesus Mound- St John

July. Kitsch'n Cafe. Back from India for a few weeks... St John continues to partner with Mike C on developing their IT product... it's now become a make or break situation for them: how typical in the Game of life, that we are forced to push it to the edge, and then find the confidence to push it a little further beyond in order to truly succeed.

2007 - Jesus Mound- Bob

July. The other half of the Sid & Bob duo.

2007 - Jesmond Dene

July. A very special view. It's one of several parts of the Dene where there is just a fantastic sense of atmosphere; this is down on a very low horse-shoe bridge. I took an identical image back in 1994, and it became an important connection to the Dene for me, back then, when I was only coming home once or twice in a year, a journey that took me 9 hours on a cramped on a coach.

2007 - Jesmond Dene

July. This is a view of the waterfall from a distance, looking through and beneath the high horse-shoe bridge.

2007 - Jesmond Dene

July. This is a view of the waterfall standing on the high horse-shoe bridge. Whenever there is heavy rain, the single waterfall becomes a vast torrent, splitting into three thundering channels (about 10 metres high). The water mist drifts out smothering the bridge and everyone on it. It's a great place to just stand and think.

2007 - Jesmond Dene

July. This is a view of the waterfall standing and the high horse-shoe bridge.

2007 - Jesmond Dene

July.

2007 - Jesmond Dene

July.

2007 - Jesus Mound - Freddy

July. It was my last day in Newcastle, the end to an amazing one month up here. A lot of the good-feeling was down to this guy. My mum was away most of the time I was there - leaving me to cat-sit Sid & Bob... but Freddy was there for a good couple weeks in between being dragged off around the world by his company... during that time we got to know each other well, and I felt a good connection of mutual friendship. It was Freddy who took me out to a fantastic pub on a Thursday night - Justin Timberlake "Love Stoned" on the Radio - where I met some of the Be Safes, which then led to the Friday night gig, photos and after party at Alex's.

My final two weeks I had the house entirely to myself. Apart from Sid & Bob. Freddy's company had sent him on a two-week mission into the North Sea on an Ice Breaker... he finally returned looking a green-shade of pale.

2007 - Jesus Mound - Mum

July. Mum had only been back a couple days, Sid & Bob had readjusted to having their original food-provider back. Sid, has this incredibly annoying habbit of giving your hand a loving "head-but" usually when you're holding something like a cup of tea or pouring a freshly boiled kettle. Mum's face says it all.

2007 - Bristol - Oivind.

July 20th. I was back in Bristol. Jo left for work and I padded around Cosy Castle feeling a little restless.

I threw on a jacket, pulled on my shoes and climbed into Swampy. Despite all the rain she was bone dry inside. Phew. No mould either. Double phew. I turned the key and she started first time. Triple phew. I drove into town... parked up near Dom's place and walked through the harbourside in a steady rain.

I lit a candle for dad in Bristol Cathedral, then made my way to the Watershed. Bumped into Oivind, who I discovered, was in a similar frame of mind about Bristol, and England in general. He's giving it until May before he decides to stay or bail out back to Norway.

2007 - Bristol - Orson.

July 20th. Simon had a day off work so I swung round to his place and had my first encounter with Simon's son. Orson. Wow, what an adorable kid. I held him in my arms and looked down at him; Orson pulled a strained face... then his face turned red... he strained a little more... then a strange noise came through his nose as he strained even more... before he finally blew out a little fart onto my hand. Ah yes, I thought, I man after my own heart... I knew that Orson and I were going to get along famously from now on.

2007 - Newcastle - Adam A

July 22nd. Saturday - I'd spent almost the entire day in bed with Jo. Blissful. But events also led me to book a late night flight back to Newcastle for a few more days. A testament to what an amazing girlfriend and best friend Jo is...she accepts I need to do what I need to do... and never tries to stop me being me. I am a very lucky man.

Riding the coach to Bristol airport I got a call from Floyd in New York, his words were "You don't know how much in awe I am of your talents, David; your book God Seed totally overwhelmed me. I knew you were good but I never dreamed you would be this good."

I was totally stoked. What a fantastic compliment. Floyd has promised to do everything he can to promote God Seed and my writing in the States.

Got back to Jesus Mound around midnight after delayed flight and found mum sitting in Dad's room watching INSOMNIA, there was a fresh pan of home-mum chicken soup on the stove and a freshly decanted Merlot. Perfect.

Woke up to glorious sunshine burning through an early morning rain. One mug of tea then a big walk through the forested gorge behind the house. Everything felt different, even though it had only been a couple days since I was last here. This was no longer the tail end of a month of being here... I was no longer in a period of recuperation... this was a fresh week. I went up to Kitsch'n cafe with my laptop and started working on the electronic notes for Dog Eat Dog, streaming down the huge wadge of paper notes I'd been putting together since South of France last autumn.

A few days earlier, Adam A had flown over from San Francisco to catch up with his sister, in London, and his brother in Bristol... so he was in Bristol whilst I was in Newcastle. The night I flew back to Bristol, was the same night Adam flew up to Newcastle... bad timing on our part. So being back in Newcastle a couple days later allowed me to catch up with my old school friend.

We grabbed a pint sitting in the sunshine outside the Collingwood, and then did the Double D diner, for a lavish Indian curry... at which point Adam said to me, "Hey man, have you got any spare copies of your book on you?"

I had a proof copy of God Seed I no longer needed; so I sold Adam my copy of God Seed in exchange for a full Indian.

2007 - Newcastle - Adam A

July. Adam clutching his copy of God Seed.

2007 - Jesus Mound - Sophie C

July. I did the walk through Jesmond Dene and then Armstrong Park, and popped up at the top of my old street... it was strange being there, feeling so familiar and yet so distant. I was early for a lunchtime rendezvous with Sophie and her sister.

I stepped into the back lane behind the old house, and then across the road, to the back lane where I used to charge along on my Raleigh Striker... where I first tried doing a no-hander, and a place that was my entire world for many many years.

There's a bohemian vibe to the area now. The cafe where we met belonged to some concept right out of a Pink Floyd album. A great place albiet expensive for what you got. We walked back through Armstrong Park into Jesmond Dene; whilst half the country was suffering major flooding, the weather here was glorious sunshine. Another great thing about spending so much time up here in Jesus Mound is the amount of walking I've been able to do... just in getting around... after spending 6 months nailed to my ergonomic stool in the Sky Bunker, working on publisher-drafts of the novels, and writing Yellow Dawn, I really felt as though my health was suffering, but 5 weeks in Newcastle, walking around Jesus Mound and through the Dene most days... it's a perfect tonic. I took Sophie and her sister to Devil's Quarry and spared a few thoughts for Floyd, who I know misses this place intensely.

This is the day I got to talk to Jenny from the Greenhaus Group, who occupy part of the Banquetting Hall in Jesus Mound... I told her about the novel Iron Man Project, told her I had used Greenhaus Group as the patrons of a future Banquetting Hall that had been wonderfully renovated, but there was a slight criminal connotation, and I wanted to make sure she/they were okay with this...

2007 - Jesus Mound - Ian

July. Kitsch'n Cafe. Ian is a regular I've seen around the cafe for a year or so now. He produces music and has an interesting ability to see sounds as shapes and colours. He's been trying to trudge through a copy of Ruth Rendall for several weeks now... so it's been amusing to see him still reading the thing every time we bump into each other... he is nearing the end here.

2007 - Gateshead - Adam A, Richy

July. It is tradition to spend time at Richy's and play old games. We dug out "Block Wars" which has particular significance for Richy & Adam, during the years Adam lived in Middlesborough (around the same time I moved to Bristol).

Adam was suffering slightly; his mother had decided to cook a full Indian curry... so that was two nights in a row.

We were back at Richy's the next night too, this time playing Dracula... and we decided to buy in a take-away. More Indian curry. I'm feeling sympathy for whoever is on the long-haul flight back to San Fran with Adam on the weekend.

2007 - Jesus Mound - Dodge (Be Safe)

July. Kitsch'n Cafe. Another Ian... with the nickname of Dodge. This is one of the Be Safe band (bass player) I met several weeks earlier. He lives in the "dark side" as Sophie C describes Jesmond... which is cool because he and I have randomly bumped into each other a couple times. I was particularly chuffed that he'd gone out and bought a copy of God Seed after I did the photos for thier gig. I grabbed a coffee at his pad and swapped some music... picked up stuff he's done with an awesome group called TIMESTORM. Top bloke.

2007 - Jesus Mound -Sophie C

July. It was my last few hours in the magical bubble-world.

The day before, Mum had left at silly-o'clock to catch a flight to Stavanger for the funeral of Auntie Dagma. I walked from Jesus Mound into town and down to the Quayside, underneath the Tyne Bridge, to the Millenieum Eye Bridge, which with amazing timing, began to "blink" just as I got there. Getting back to Jesus Mound it had started to rain persistantly, so I'd thrown on my green plastic mac and went for a mammoth walk through the Dene, in the pouring rain... loving it. I watched three lads - stripped down to their undercrackers - jumping from the high rocks into the waterfall, screaming from the intense cold of the water... I sat on the picnic bench on the wide green, overlooked by the tree-clogged ridge high above me... I walked back through the Dene, across Armstrong Bridge, pulling back the hood of my mac so I could enjoy the rain on my face... I walked to Osborne Avenue and saw the old shared-house had been trashed...windows smashed, a window in the bathroom missing entirely. Somebody was working up there, I was about to shout up and say "hello, what happened?" when my mobile rang. It was Hagen ringing from Bristol: he was stunned to learn I was back in Newcastle. "What the hell are you doing?" he demanded to know. Getting back home I had a long hot blissful shower, then threw my wet jeans into the washing machine, pulled on Starsky, poured a large glass of Merlot, heated up some of mum's stew and settled into a chilled evening. Freddy came home and we spent hours looking through these "Secret Window" pages, crying with laughter at some points.

So now was my final - final day. I'd drunk a mug of tea sitting out on the decking. I'd done Kitsch'n Cafe, pulling together notes on Dog Eat Dog; I'd drunk strong coffee, I'd ducked outside to grab a Steak Bake from Greggs next door, and sat munching it on a wall on windy but sunny day on Acorn Road - blissfully happy. I'd said goodbye to Samantha "Dimple Chin", to St John and Mike C. I'd walked back past St George's church, gazing at the amazing tower that I adore so much, down Lindisfarne, savouring every glance and footfall. Back home I'd sat outside on the decking in the sun, drinking tea and listening to the wind in the trees, and the gently tingle of wind-chimes. I stripped the bedding off the sofa in Dad's room - washed it and folded everything back into place.

I didn't go next door - that friendship has been damaged from the night Rosie got drunk and leary with me (previous week), but Pete stepped outside and joined me for a coffee. Then Sophie popped round to say goodbye, whilst Pete finished off his 2nd short story next door. Pete dropped me off at West Jesmond... and four hours later I was at a wedding in Gloucester... back in the South West... two days and then I'll be in the South of France.