day 2

disclaimers:
- I'm that level of tired where every time you blink you have a mini dream. I keep imagining scenarios.
- I'm warm, but I'm unloading cargo onto other homeless people as I really cannot deal with the weight of this bag.
- please forgive any spelling mistakes or grammatical errors.
okaaaaaaaay.
so, being homeless doesn't make me any less lazy ill sure as hell tell you that. I keep going back to my cardboard on the floor, using my igloo sized backpack as a pillow and my tote as a cushion. obviously, I need to securely entangle all the straps to everything I own around my arms as I sleep in order to ensure if anyone tries to mug me, ill wake up. probably just tell them to hurry up and fuck off so I can go back to sleep though to be honest. ive not slept nearly as much as I would at home only about 6 hours in total, on three separate occasions each around the 2 hour mark. made a new friend and we travelled literally around the perimeter of town at least twice through the early hours. at one point I thought he the CHEEKIEST CUNT I've ever clapped eyes on, but I forgave him, don't know where he is now though? I'll go into detail about him later.

 

picking up from where I left off, which was in mcdonalds I think uploading day 1. spent about 4 hours after that trying to attach the pictures to the blog. failing at least 5 times. then succeeding, only to get a facebook message that read "love your blog, but the pictures aren't loading" at which point, paired with my fatigue, sent me into a rage. I was walking, back to my friend who I left on the cardboard, saw two females on a bench, not homeless, eating a jacket potato each on which I would assume was one of their work breaks. well that was it. I was livid. not jealous and hungry, because if I've been anything so far in this experience, its full. but I just didn't know how they had the audacity to eat a jacket potato. I was thinking "stupid fucking bitches, could you be eating a more annoying food!" I have nothing at all against jacket potatoes, if anything I enjoy them, but I just needed someone to blame for my anger about the pictures, and the fact I'd have to break my city centre slumber virginity. so I went to my cardboard, on the way, this man handed me a cup with a leaflet in saying "free coffee" so I went to get it. it was apparent it was a new coffee shop and the free coffee was a promotional thing rather than a looking out for the homeless kind of thing, anyway I went and got a latte, the woman who served me said I could have a free coffee but it wouldn't be in the cup I was given, instead a smaller one. that was it. again. I never said a word or did anything that indicated I was less than impressed. not even an involuntary eye roll, but she now became the victim of my angry thoughts. though unless she reads this she'll never know it, she was getting cussed the fuck out in my head. coffee was dead. left half and slept for 2 hours. literally the closest I think any one has actually even been to the popular saying "sleeping with one eye open."

when I woke up, I vacated as quickly as I could. my friend, who I was curled next to whilst asleep, had been asleep over 12 hours at this point. he didn't venture Sunday night/Monday morning with me and the drunk guy with the beers. as he was sleeping. now, he's still sleeping, so I left. went to meet a girl called Kayla who is basing her university coursework on me being voluntarily homeless. also her friend and personal photographer Nicole. we sat in burger king and chin wagged about both of our intentions and generally shared excitement and laughter about what we could produce. planned to meet again soon and had a final farewell photoshoot in picadilly gardens. were meeting again to do a video interview etc. ALSO, they both work in a hotel that's closing in a month, so they said, if I do the whole two weeks, they'll book me in a penthouse in the hotel for the last night with a balcony to get pissed and blazed, celebratory intoxication is my favourite. we waved our farewells and I went to meet Kadisha at her uni to upload the pictures (which now work.) brushed my teeth, washed my face, changed my socks, tshirt, jumper and re applied deodorant in the disabled toilets of that uni also.
the we left, walked to st peters square met to meet Cait, who also is featuring this, for her uni project. both are journalists in the making. they've got good questions and clear visions also which made me feel like I was doing something extra special. anyway me and Cait walked around town, taking pictures of me looking homeless on doorsteps. she did an initial 24 hours interview about my progress and my intentions. we took sly candid shots of other homeless people. she also got a good shot of a group of about 8 women walking past and ignoring me, I wasn't begging, but we was portraying that. anyway we went back to market street where we randomly bumped into an organisation called something like #feedmanchester who basically twice a week go around feeding homeless from donations from other people and soups, coffees and curries they make at home etc. I didn't take any as they only feed on average 70 people per time, and id eaten by then. sure Cait will cover that in more detail.
when Cait went home, I went on a walk, mooching around aimlessly and alone and it began to rain. anyway I ended up in mcdonalds. AGAIN. OBVIOUSLY. where some homeless man got kicked out for rolling a spice zoot in there and another got kicked out for smoking a cig inside. wasn't in there long before I realised nothing I had so far that day was as intense as the heroin addicts from yesterday so I went to the gay village.

I have a homeless friend who I made on a night out ages ago who I also speak to who lives on canal street so I went to find him. when I did, he was different, as FUCK. he was pissed, rowdy and overall just tarnished all I thought I knew about him. he's been homeless 16 years apparently and wouldn't at this point like to return to a home at all. he's got a new cute dog who he's had for 18 days and I was sat with him for two hours. gave him a jumper, boxers, socks, 2 bakewell tarts and BOTH my boxes of cereal. (cookie crisp and frosties.) which he ate dry and offered me some back off. I declined. anyway what I will do is quote some of the things he shouts/said to me. that's probably the most accurate representation I can give, that way you can gage your own opinions. bare in mind he means no harm at all and he's cute and the bits in capital letters are what he shouted to canal street goers and lower case in our conversation:
"CAN YOU SPARE ANY CHANGE FOR SOME COCAINE, I WANT TO START A CRACK HABIT, IF NOT A BOTTLE OF VODKA WILL DO" in a jokingly tone always may I add. if anything he was the only one who laughed!
"I used to be on 9 gram of spice a day!"
"ANY CHANCE OF A LIMSOUSINE FELLA, NEED TO GET NEXT MAN A TAXI!"
"ANY CHANCE OF A BOTTLE OF VODKA, A PIZZA WILL DO £3.50"
"ANY CHANCE YOU CAN SPARE ME A BICYCLE, MY FOOT HAS GOT A FLAT TYRE!"
"ANY CHANCE OF £50 LOVE? HOW ABOUT A SMILE THEN?"
he'd previously stated he has no sexual desires anymore however a smile from a woman is worth more than a thousand blowjobs! I have to disagree because no smile could EVER do what this mouth do. partly joking!

so anyway, an hour into being with next man (I'll call him next man cause he calls me next man and he said he didn't want his name featured!) a next, next man came. homeless, apparently, but only for one day, meaning he became homeless that night and he was not to be homless anymore by the morning. so I simply said are you sureeeeeeeee? sounds like a night out to me, but he's a pathological liar but at this point we don't know this so forget I told you that and share in my confusion! I feel like we had a roller coaster relationship that lasted 8 hours and in that time, I loved, hated and pitied him for atleast an hour each! I'll bullet point it because he has so many inconsistencies it'll just confuse you in a way that would take 7 detailed paragraphs to convey, similar achievement can be achieved by contradicting bullet points! For arguments sake let's call him Liam:

* "I don't do drugs me, I only drink, don't really drink anymore"
* "I'm not like these tramps out here me, never catch me begging"
* "I'm clean me, just got these huaraches, new ones out"
* "I could write a book about Manchester like you but it's hard to write a book used to write short stories in prison"
* "Roll me a cig" (using his "burn" though so I did)
* "Last week this guy had £350 quid and he bought bare sniff and all that and we just went through it"
* "Let's go McDonalds"
* *begs strangers for 40p all the way to McDonald's for a cheeseburger*
* *gets £2, and gets the bus pass chicken sandwich and chips £2 deal*
* Goes toilet for 20 minutes literally.
* Comes out clearly high as fuck and spills alllllll his tea. Proving everything he's ever said so far is a lie.
* He's not addicted to heroin he can get off it anytime and he doesn't smoke it.
* Starts shouting at me saying I better not put his name in my book. Regardless how much I tell him I'm not making a book it's a blog and magazine.
* Asks to see my magazine, looks at the front cover only at which point he decides "I like the birth issue, but not sure about the boiski bit, let me think!"
* Asks what I'm gonna change "bonskis" to? He doesn't like it it's 'weird.'
* Have you always been gay he asks, and continues to ask every 3 minuets much like everything he said.
* Got kids and shagged his birds mum and got her pregnant.
* Got kicked out of McDonalds for getting caught by the security guard smoking crack in the toilet (that he was in for another 20 fucking minutes.)
* Admits he's done spice after previously saying he'd never touch it/never has when next man said he used to do 9g a day.
* Says he's only going to do petty crime till his brother gets out of pen.
* Also tries to break into a car outside gorilla.
* Brags about how he's 35 and done 10 years jail time in total.
* Does not shut the fuck up.
* Shoplifts from the spar (ain't mad at it he got me a creme egg!)
* Done crack in a phone box, Costa toilets, Piccadilly starbucks toilets didn't let him in cause he wasn't a customer at which point he started asking for change so he could buy something to do crack in the toilets.
* We walked around around town for 6 hours the whole time he's just bragging about illegal shit that he initially "didn't even do."
* Revealed he grew up in many children's homes which is where my view on him changed.
* Claimed he had mental health issues.

He kept going on, as do many others, about "rattling" or "starting my rattle" which is basically I assume going cold turkey or withdrawing from heroin. He claimed the rattle from spice was the most intense and next man confirmed he also agreed previously before hand.
Bringing me to Mr Joyce. Professional beggar who me and Liam met at 7.30am in Piccadilly. Claims he makes £160 a day. (I'm honestly starting to consider maybe begging, because these figures are shocking, might sit with one all day and check the reliability!) anyway Mr Joyce, at this point having been sat in the same spot (not his usual spot outside Tesco) since 4am had only made £2.50. He was livid but still chirpy. He had what he thought all southerners had which is the gift of the gab. And he's addicted to spice. And spice only at this point although he did in the past have an addiction to other substances and alcohol. So overall my first experience with a spicy member. Up to now I'm team spice. This one man alone was funnier, more charming and overall seemed happier, although having being homeless for a year, than any one else I'd met at this point. #spiceupyourlife. Spice however, EVERYONE, including him warned me not to even ever consider it! Actually never intended to and to be honest at this point this is experience is putting me off cigarettes never mind fucking spice.
The reason he's homeless so far seems the most genuine and it goes as follows: basically he was in Blackpool on the sick. (just off topic a sec, all the homeless people so far know every type of benefit off by heart and the amounts, they're like, jsa, nbq, bbq, tmi, £566 £144, £7 per week unless you get jkr too then it's £78 every fortnight!) anyway, his sickness benefit was stopped or he was "sanctioned" for missing an appointment. He claims he went to the appointment with his key worker and the government said he didn't calling both him and his key worker liars. Eventually some time later they contacted him saying they made a mistake and he was right. He did go, and they owe him a lot of money and back payment etc. Buzzing clearly he was but already homeless. So anyway he claims he was begging whilst waiting for his money to come in which actually never came. So he rang like "yo wag1 where's my doe bro..." To the government. At which point they claimed a police man had saw him begging in Blackpool whilst claiming sickness benefit so that's classed as working therefore he's not getting it. He argued that he only begged because he was wrongly sanctioned resulting in homelessness. Ultimately their fault but they didn't have any of it.
Anyway after all that I lost them both and I went to bed in my spot from yesterday! Then I woke up freezing and went on a walk but achy legs, and tiredness led me back there. Woke up 2 hours ago and came straight to the library to write this.
The computers at the library only let you use Internet for an hour so I started this on one of those and finished it on my phone so any inconsistency is because of that. Will all be fixed by the time the pictures are added.


Ps. Overwhelmed by the support and reactions to be honest. You're all g's xxxxxxxxxxxxxx