I'd Rather Make Flapjacks

I have another new book coming out soon and at the moment i am reading through it to make sure that everything is OK before it gets all printed up. Doing this is called proofing and you have to read and read and read to make sure that everything is right and all the bits are in the right place and everything!! You have to put full stops where they should be and all that kind of thing. Its one of those writing jobs I'm not that fond of to be honest but you have to get it right. I like writing and having ideas and i like making those idea as good as i can but putting dots and dashes in the right place.....i think I'd rather make flapjacks.
The book is called POETRY BURP and will be out soon!!!!!
I hope.

Kayak V Canoe...which ones bestt??? FIGHT!!!!

Just come back from a great overnight do in East Barnby with North Yorkshires Looked After Children. I stayed over in a little bunk bed about as big as , er, me!! I spoke to young people about poetry and had a laugh and they went canoeing and kayaking on the river Esk, all dressed in wetsuits and all the great. They looked like Umpa Lumpers or something!!! I asked the expert, a great bloke called mike, what the difference is between a kayak and a canoe and its all a bit complicated. It can depend on where you live and how you paddle it!! You can actually canoe in a kayak and kayak in a canoe...so now you know..... It was a great day out, it rained a bit and got a bit cold but still great fun. A BIG thank you to Helen at NYLAC for asking em and allowing me!!! to come along in the first place...by the way kayak is the same spelt backwards.....yeah man!!!

The BIG WELSH WALK 2012

Last year i walked the Coast To Coast path, all 200 miles of it. I performed in 8 schools along the way and raised £1600 for CLIC Sargent, the children's cancer charity. This year i am walking the Pembrokeshire Coastal Path and doing the same thing!! My old mate Andy The Trudger Amos is coming along again. So far i am visiting 5 schools along the way. I hope to get the permission to go into a couple more. If you are reading this, and live in Pembrokeshire and can help, then please let me know!! I am doing the walk from May 14th to 26th. They will be loads more about the walk on my website soon.

Back To Norn Iron!!!

Last week i went to Belfast in Norn Iron -Northern Ireland. I flew there on a little plane with propellers and everything. I have been to Norn Iron 4 times before, visiting schools and i always enjoy it. This time i was performing at the Northern Ireland Children's Book Awards. The event was held in a big, serious college where everyone whispered and looked important. There was 2 hundred young peeeples from schools all over the place. Everyone voted for their favourite book and the winner was Gansta Granny by David Walliams. My son Ben has a copy and i told everyone that i would read it when i get the chance. I have a big wobbly pile of books om my desky-wesky and i have to read all them first!! So HELLO to everyone i met in Belfast and a big TA to the people from the libraries for asking me along.

Frogs and Fish and Big Muddy Puddles

Yesterday i went for a walk up a big hill called Ingleborough. I have been up this hill many times before but i still love walking up it. It is an awesome looking thing with a flat top and steep sides and it can be seen from miles around. Anyway...i scrambled to the top and then walked down a different way. It was really steep and muddy so i tried to be careful. I ended up doing a great comedy fall!! I slipped on the mud and went bum first straight into a big old muddy puddle!! SPLASH!! Even thought they was no-one around to see me i still made an effort and made it look like a comedy fall. I'm always performing y'see!!I think the sheep liked it!! Then i walked with mud dripping of me to the fish pond at the bottom and saw er...some fish and about 50 frogs. Frog were croaking, showing off and going a bit mad. Then i heard something that sounded like a big, i mean really big, lawnmower. I looked up and saw a helicopter, a massive one with 2 blades flying about 5 feet from my head!! Well it was more but it was close. So i had a great day, fish, frogs, big helicopters and a muddy comedy fall!!

Chocky Wocky Do Da

First day off in a long time today. over the last five weeks i have been in schools all over the place from Essex to Rotherham to Manchester to Leeds to Blackpool, Wakefield, Stockport, Batley, Liverpool, Richmond and Nottngham and more.....
I have driven about 2000 miles, done about 100 shows and performed to around 3500 people. Thats a lot of poems!!! Today though i well, i did this blog, kipped on the settee and read a book. I ran out of coffee and went to town for a wander. I did some stuff in the garden, like tidy up and wrote a title of a poem in my notebook. The poem is called Chocky Wocky Do Da. I haven't written the poem yet but the idea has landed...y'se when you are a poet, and WE ARE ALL POETS, even on a day off you are still thinking about stuff, the old cogs are still turning. Chocky Wocky Do Da, well it sounds good, kinda funny, baby talk, i suppose it has to be a poem about chocolate or does it.....

The Tornado And The Worm

My son Jack is into trampolining. He makes up tricks and stuff and generally bounces about having a great time. He gives his tricks cool sounding names like Back Bomb, Knee Bomb and Bum Bomb. Today he made up one called the Tornado and one called the Worm. The Tornado is like a big twister and the worm is where you jump really high and wriggle in mid-air. Its a bit like dancing. His fave is the Back Bomb which i invented!! I never had a trampoline when i was 8 but i would have loved one in the garden. All we had in the garden was the er...garden.