The Haunted Jacket
Many years ago I was just a poor broke student at a UK University. At least back then, research students got grants that allowed them to subsist and which could be supplemented with a bit of teaching or other part-time work. I was quite lucky in that I was teaching a geological mapping class to non-geology students for the amazing sum of ten pounds per hour in addition to a subsistence grant from the NERC (if such a thing exists anymore). However, I can tell you life wasn’t easy financially! Like most students then, I also kept an eye on the second hand clothes outlets for any bargains and one day, I spotted a beautiful tweed jacket that looked like it may fit me. I forget how much it was
Read More »It’s A Mystery
There is so much that we do not know and probably can never know. I have to be honest and say that that pisses me off! Among the first thoughts that I can recall thinking were things like who am I? What am I? and things have not changed. I still ask such questions on a daily basis and I am still frustrated in the knowledge that I may never know the answers. I know that I am something – I think, I feel – I am. But what am I? Will I die and simply cease to exist? What is at the end of space? What is it all for? Is there a reason for all this – the out there – what is it anyway? It’s pointless I
Read More »Poetry Featured in Writers Wheel Magazine
I am pleased to have a couple of my recent poems featured in Writers Wheel Magazine. The magazine is the FREE online creative writing magazine from Compass Books an imprint of John Hunt. another imprint – Roundfire Books – is the publisher of my novel The Last Observer. Take a look and my poems are on page 20. Enjoy.
Read More »The Devil Rode Out
When I was a teenager, I was experiencing all kinds of strange things that really scared the hell out of me. I have documented a lot of that in my book – Inner Journeys: Explorations of the Soul including the poltergeist-type activity and the visitations by some ghostly presence. It’s all in that book! However, I remained really interested in magic and the so called ‘occult’ at the time devouring many books on the subject. In the midst of the activity and the interest, I watched a film on TV one christmas that both enflamed my interest but also scared me very deeply. Looking back on the movie now the effects are pretty poor by comparison to modern movies but back then – wow! More important though was that in
Read More »Fall – My Favorite Season
To me there is no more beautiful a season than Fall or Autumn. Even as a young boy, the beginnings of winter always appealed to me when we used to go to the banks of the River Humber to celebrate Guy Fawlkes night. There is something about it – the colors, the smell of dampness and the coming cold, the leaves heaped in piles and blowing in the wind, the fog that often occurs at this time of year….. With that in mind, we set out this weekend to tour a bit of south Bohemia here in the Czech Republic with stops in Jindrichuv Hradec and Ceske Kromlov being particularly spectacular. We were blessed with almost perfect weather – foggy mornings and sunny days – and sitting on a boat
Read More »Utterly Overwhelmed and Angry
I know that I have written about this before but I really am now totally overwhelmed by US taxes as I think are many overseas US citizens. US citizens living overseas are treated like criminals by the USA and heavily penalized in the form of a growing web of complex rules and reporting requirements that even the IRS doesn’t actually seem to understand and that now required specialist tax assistance (i.e expensive). When you add to that filing in the Czech Republic – which is actually relatively simple – it is just too much. Tomorrow, I head to Prague where I will review and file tax returns for each year from 2009 – 2013. I will also file a whole array of other special tax forms and reports to the
Read More »It’s All Fantasy
It’s proven, so it has to be true And now there’s not a thing that we can do Yet another litany of lies Pulled off in front of our very eyes It’s a free show though So we mustn’t complain Hollywood in real-life Actors showing grief and pain The news isn’t so good And we are all so afraid Pulled in so many directions Playing out this dark charade Lies become truth become lies Who the hell can really tell? Stories and often, just rumors Everything merges simply so well But amongst all these sleepers One or two still think and question Suspect that they smell a rat Don’t swallow that suggestion Remaining single-minded Looking inwards and deeply Ignoring all this bloody nonsense Staying true; the free me It’s pretty
Read More »Who Am I?
Try so very hard to be me The one you think that you know A persona imagined passively Minor differences in take Patterns in my speech It’s not about the things you make But about the who that you are And doesn’t that vary, be wary I can be anyone I want to be I can be anyone that you want to see Image is like clothing for the ego Nothing is certain in make believe Nothing has real solidity Floating variations in psyche Revolving interpretations inside me I project and you receive But the me that I want to be May not be the one that you perceive Am I real then? And are you? Imagined shadows hurtling Through some forgotten plane Like some silly Computer game I digress
Read More »Keeping Everyone Happy
Last week in London, we pulled off our first conference. Pulling together something like a conference is a real feat of organization and hard work I can tell you! It also has a lot of stakeholders who all want something different from the event. The attendees, the sponsors, the exhibitors and so on. Pleasing them all is really tough to do and none of them really care much about how complex everything is or how difficult it is to pull off a complex event like this – they just want you to meet their objectives. To be honest, it reminded me a little of life! In life, I think it is exactly the same way. People expect things from you and they are not actually in possession of the facts
Read More »Duty Free?
I have been traveling quite a bit recently and indeed, I am just back from London. Me being me, I couldn’t help wondering why we still call the shops in airports duty free? Plainly, they are not or if they are, something else is wrong. I ended up asking the manager of one such store why, if the store was duty free, could I buy Maltesers much cheaper in the High St.? He didn’t seem to know so I asked about cigarettes – same price as the High St. Well, inside the EU apparently, duty free isn’t duty free anymore. It is my friends a con and I counted several items in a duty free that were more than 20% more expensive than the corner store near my Hotel in
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