I have been running around trying to buy props and write poems. It has been rather hectic to say the least. From my massive list of props to purchase, which initially ranged from a hip flask to a blow-up doll, I have nearly bought everything. I've been scavenging around in junk shops and charity shops (I would like to add at this point that the blow-up doll was new! There I drew the line with regard to second hand!) Although what the Arts Council or the tax man will make of a receipt from Ann Summers for the purchase of Philipa Hole Female Doll £15.00 I really do not know.

One of my biggest problems seemed to be the location of Burberry type material for Punch's hat. Alison had let me know that she was having trouble sourcing a suitable textile. I was on the lookout everywhere I went. Eventually I found a Burberryesque sleeping bag in a camping shop, which I purchased and rushed around to Alison's house so that she could start working on it.

I have £250 left of Arts Council money which is to cover the props I still need to get and the decoration of the Punch and Judy booth. The booth has proved to be a nightmare to construct. Plastic tubing was out of the question as the joins weren't right. Tried to buy a battered, bent, ripped tubular wardrobe which was on display in Homebase Wolverhampton but they wouldn't sell, claiming that they couldn't possibly sell their display items. I did point out that they probably wouldn't make any sales with the offending display article standing their as an advert to how completely flimsy and badly made the product was but I don't think they cared (bad wardrobe - good Punch and Judy booth). I tried to track down the company that makes toy ball displays for chains like Early Years and Poundstretcher (the staff of both shops in Wolverhampton were really helpful and attempted to find out when asked but to no avail). The display stands would have been an ideal framework for the booth but when I finally found out who did sell them, Mookie I think the company was called, they wouldn't sell me one without me purchasing four hundred balls to go in it! Eventually, a lovely man at the Wergs Garden Centre who had shown me around a double toilet tent which I decided it was too wide for my Punch and Judy booth, directed me to Pearl. Pearl strikes me as a no-nonsense woman who is not phased easily and when an idiot in a baseball cap asks for a custom made toilet tent with a window she didn't even look surprised! So my Punch and Judy booth (aka a bespoke toilet tent from Leisure Care Tent Services, Stallings Lane, Kingswinford) is on order. Please don't ask about the construction of a mock-up both out of old Express and Stars so that I could ascertain measurements. How my partner Dave laughed when he came back from the shop to find I'd stuck it to his dadoo rail with drawing pins.

I should really have got going with my props sooner as it has eaten into writing time but it's difficult to know what to buy without knowing the characters.

The website is done! Hooray! It looks great in my opinion. Clean, clear, simple. Thank you, Ken. I even have sound; there are three of my poems on there. But I guess if you're reading this you might already have heard them. If not go back and listen - I insist.

The puppets are also coming along nicely. One is complete; it looks wicked. It is the Nosey Neighbour one. I am posting a picture so that you can have a look. The one on the right is the puppet the one on the left is the puppet maker (my cousin Ste - aka Womble. Don't ask, he will tell you!).

You may have noticed I've avoided mentioning writing. I bet you think I haven't done any. Well actually I have. I've completed another poem for the doctor character (the take on this is that the doctor is a Psycho Therapist and the poem details all of the 'therapies' that she may be able to help Punch with). Having said this I am still painfully aware that the first of March in on Thursday and there are still poems missing.

I have written a lot in this entry; I'm beginning to think it might be a diversion tactic. I better go and get on with it.

It is now February; I've got one month to spend all the Arts Council money and finish the script. The writing is coming on Ok at the moment. I have about nineteen minutes of tightish poetry and probably another fifteen of loose poetry! There is about five minutes of poetry that should be there that isn't but at least I am starting to see the finished piece.

The website is under construction and I've seen some proofs of the pages which have been done so far (very pleased with the way that they look). I have booked another spoken word
Arvon course and paid for it; this one is in May in Devon and John Hegley is the guest poet. The puppets are being mocked up by my cousin at the moment. I have commissioned a Punch hat for me to wear (Alison Westall-Jones is a local textile designer and she has taking on the challenge; she's done work for Hugh Fernley-Wittingstall and Laurence Llewellyn-Bowen in the past. Do you think they are all members of the same double-barrelled club?). I have to start buying props this month and the materials to make the fit-up (I am making this myself, probably out of plastic plumbing pipes and canvass - I used to be a sign-writer and have done scenery construction and painting in the past so I should be able to do it).

I'm making tentative enquiries for possible venues for putting the production 0n at. I can't see it being ready to perform much before summer because I still have to learn everything once it is written but if I have a complete script to send to the Arts Council just after the 1st March then that should be OK.