The Notebook
Days with nowt in them · kept since August 2026 · not a ledger
This is not a ledger and I want that understood before anybody writes in. I have four ledgers and I have said I am not opening a fifth. This is the notebook. It is the same notebook the register comes out of, the one from the stationer's in town, and until now the pages with no shoe on them stayed in the notebook and went no further.
Gary said I should put them up. His reasoning were that a day out with no shoe is still a day out, and that people who read the register might want to know what I do when there is nowt to record, which is mostly walk and sit and have the flask. I said nobody wants that. He said put it up anyway. So here it is, from August, which is when I started keeping the pages properly.
Two sorts of thing are in here. Days with no shoe, which is most of it. And shoes I stood in front of that do not qualify for any ledger, the Lakes mainly, where I have kept a note for my own reference and nothing more. None of it is numbered and none of it counts. The register is the register.
The pages 28 · newest first
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The podcast, episode three
28 September 2026
Episode three is out, on the Spotify, Barry says. It is shoe number one, Marsden, 2009, done proper this time. I said in episode two that it were black. It were brown. I have put that right on the podcast and I am putting it right here. The register has always had it brown. No shoe.
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Sunday breakfast. No shoe
27 September 2026
Summer is stopping with us. She has a bowl she hits, and you have to wait for it to finish. I said go on. The cornflakes had gone soft by the time it had. No shoe.
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Timed the kettle
25 September 2026
Timed the kettle. Three minutes fifty. It is normally three twenty. Our Linda says it's the weather. I were in all day. No shoe.
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A trainer brought to the house
21 September 2026
The kids came round, Summer and her young man, Our Linda's side. Summer had brought me a trainer, wet through. From a bus stop, she said. It is not logged. It were not found in the field and it were not found by me. You don't bring them. I've said. It is on the table on a doily, and Our Linda has put the cakes next to it.
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Huddersfield station, platform four. Nothing doing
17 September 2026
Twenty past. Sat on the bench on platform four at Huddersfield station, under the canopy, with it raining past the end of it. Nothing doing on the platform. No shoe. I had brought the flask. The flask has turned up, and I will not go into where.
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A brogue under the shower, the changing rooms at the dome. Personal reference
15 September 2026 · personal reference
Right brogue, brown, polished, stood on the tiles under the shower in the changing rooms at the dome. Upright. I have not moved it. It is indoors, but it is out of the area as well, and a shoe that fails two rules does not get a ledger for passing neither. Photographed for personal reference, the same as the boot at the lake. That is twice now.
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Twenty lengths. No shoe
13 September 2026 · personal reference
Twenty lengths in the dome. The company on the course were still at it when I got out. No shoe.
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Away, three nights. The dome. No shoes as yet
12 September 2026 · personal reference
Our Linda got a deal. Three nights at a holiday park with a swimming dome, term time so it is quiet. It is twenty nine degrees in the dome, which I were not told about. There is a company in, on a course, doing exercises in the water with their badges on. No shoes as yet, and out of the area whatever turns up.
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The flask. Not found
11 September 2026
Could not find the flask. I have been through the front room and it is not in the settee. I did not go out. I do not go out without the flask if I can help it. No shoe.
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Plaice Station. Nothing today
8 September 2026
Called in at Plaice Station Fisheries. Shannon said they have not seen any today, before I had asked. She says she will keep an eye out. Had a fishcake. No shoe.
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Sunday, the carvery. No shoe
6 September 2026
Sunday. There were a roast. It were not ours. Our Linda booked the carvery. Beef, turkey or gammon, the man said, and I said beef. You don't touch the meat. I did ask. Then you are on your own for the veg. It said one visit only on a bit of paper, which I think is fair. Mr Ackroyd were two tables over and never saw us. No shoe.
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Round the house with the new camera. No shoe
4 September 2026
Tried the new camera round the house. It spins when you click. It's meant to follow you and it did, mostly. No shoe in the house, which since April I do check.
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A camera, in the post, with no note
1 September 2026
A camera came in the post on the Thursday. There were no note with it. If whoever sent it reads this, thank you. It is very good, it turns on its own, and I do not know what I have done to deserve it. I will be using it for the reports when I have got the hang of it. No shoe.
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Sunday, at home. No shoe
30 August 2026
Sunday. No roast. It were German. There were brass on the radio before anybody told me what it were. A very big piece of pork. No shoe.
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Back home. No shoe
29 August 2026
Back from the Lakes. Four hours. There were a queue at the services so we went straight through. It rained the duration, which I had been told to expect. The fells are said to be very good. Our Linda has put a wash on. No shoe.
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The dinner at the hotel. No shoe
28 August 2026 · personal reference
Formal dinner in the hotel dining room. Small plates, a lot of them. They took my plate. I weren't finished. The flask were not to come to the table, Our Linda said, because they do teas. No shoe.
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The function room, a hen do. Not mine
28 August 2026 · personal reference
Our Linda went up after the dinner. The residents' lounge were locked and the only room open had a hen do in it. I had brought Barry's microphone and the mixer for the podcast. Our Linda said I would not need them on a holiday. Well. The do is not mine. No shoe.
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A boot by the lake. Personal reference, not the ledger
27 August 2026 · personal reference
Left boot, brown, the walking sort, laces in, at the water's edge where the path comes down to the lake. An inch of rainwater stood in it. That is two days' worth. It were dry Tuesday. This is Cumbria and the register is Huddersfield and the surrounding areas, so it has not got a number and it will not get one. I photographed it, for personal reference, not the ledger. That is the first time in seventeen year I have photographed one I could not log, and I have wrote it down so that it is on the record that I did. I want that understood.
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The hotel, the room. No shoe
26 August 2026 · personal reference
There were a man at the door took the bag off us. I weren't for it, but it is done with and nothing has come of it. Eleven cushions on the bed, which Our Linda says are not for using. The slippers are both still in the bag. You cannot see the fells for the rain but I am told they are there. No shoe.
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The hotel, arriving. No shoe
25 August 2026 · personal reference
Got to the hotel in the rain. It had been on since Kendal. There were a man stood at the door who wanted the bag. No shoe, and out of the area in any case.
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A trainer on a car bonnet, services on the M6. Personal reference
24 August 2026 · personal reference
Not for the ledger. Trainer, on the bonnet of a car in the car park at the services on the M6 going north, Our Linda driving us up to the Lakes. The car were somebody else's and there were somebody sat in it. I have not knocked. It were going on to Scotland. I cannot log a moving shoe. That is a removal, not a loss. A shoe, sort of. I have kept a note for my own reference and that is all it is.
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Castle Hill, my dinner. No shoe
23 August 2026
Up Castle Hill for my dinner on the stool. No shoe this time. There were a curlew, which I have not heard up there in a good while, and I have noted it. Flask conditions good. Cheese and pickle.
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The podcast
21 August 2026
Barry has lent me his microphone and there is a podcast now, recorded in the shed. It is on the Spotify. It is separate from the register. The register carries on the same. No shoe.
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Sunday, at home. No shoe
16 August 2026
Sunday. No roast. Neighbours round and Our Linda did cheese in a pot, with long forks. There is a rule about dropping your bread in, which I will not write down here. Mr Ackroyd from number eleven were there. No shoe.
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A trainer on the 370, the back seat
15 August 2026
Grey trainer, on the back seat of the 370, halfway to town. I sat with it till my stop. It has not got a number. A bus is not the field and it is not a room neither. It goes up and down all day, and by the time I got off it were somewhere else again from where I found it. It goes with the boot in the boot of my car, undecided.
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The dry swimming at the community centre. No shoe
12 August 2026
Went to watch the dry swimming at the community centre. They said I would have to wear the cap to watch and I did not argue. It took me back. There were no pool at our school. They have not changed the caps. No shoe in the hall. I looked, out of habit.
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A trainer on our bin, bin night
10 August 2026
Monday, bin night. Took the wheelie bin down to the kerb after tea and there were a trainer sat on the lid. Gone grey, laces in. It is not mine and it is not Our Linda's. I do not move shoes, and the bin had to go to the kerb, so the shoe went with it, on the lid, the same way up. It had gone in the morning with the bins. It were not found in the field. It were found on our bin. It is a household matter, the same as the boot in the boot of my car, and it is undecided the same as that one.
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Sunday, at home. No shoe
9 August 2026
Sunday. There were no roast. Our Linda did a Mexican, the sort you make up yourself at the table, and some of the family were round. Nobody said what order it goes in. I were not out, and there were no shoe.
A last word
I will keep it up as I go. If a page turns out to have had a shoe on it after all, it comes out of here and goes in the register with a number, the same as anything else, and I will say so.