A Dog’s Life
I know this is going to sound pretty strange but have you ever wondered how a dog sees the world? I was walking Rocky just now and plainly, his world is a smell-based environment. His reality is different to mine just because he has a better sense of smell and better hearing across a broader set of frequencies. I will go ahead and assume he doesn’t see as well as me but who knows? It could be that he sees a different spectrum too. That might explain how dogs sometimes bark at things we do not see. When Rocky looks down our street, he sees something very different to me. I imagine he has perhaps black and white vision superimposed with a smell-map and colored by sound. Who knows what his
Read More »Allie the Dragon and the Golden Shoes
I have been reading some of my own stories to my daughter recently and she really likes them. Last night she asked if I could write a story about Lions and Tigers. I will give that a go in the coming weeks. However, one of her favorite characters is one that I made up over 20-years ago now. The character is now known to all of my children and her name is Allie the Dragon. Allie is a big friendly dragon that can talk and visits small children at bedtime. She knocks on the bedroom window and then will take the child on a trip on her back. Over the years, Allie had flown my children everywhere – even to the Moon. My daughter seems to really like the Allie
Read More »Flight School
After working as a rig geologist in the North Sea, I developed a real fear of flying. I really didn’t enjoy the helicopter rides and even fixed-wing aircraft rides scared me. If I knew I had to fly then I would worry for days before the flight. It was OK when I was working in the UK as flying wasn’t something that I did too frequently but when I moved to the USA, flying suddenly took on a whole new level of importance. Flying was viewed like taking a bus there. I knew something had to be done but what? As it turned out, there was an annual air show at Addison airport in Dallas. We decided it might be fun to go and we took our son. It was
Read More »Will You Help?
I know I that perhaps I bore the hell out of many of you going on about my books all the time but – if you could give me some small help I sure would appreciate it. Here is how; 1. You could buy my book – My Haunted Life on Kindle – its just 99cents. Basically, less than the price of a beer that should we meet, you might buy for me without thinking. Or, 2. You could write a short review on Amazon or Goodreads of one of my books that you may have read. Or, 3. You could share one of my books around your friends on Facebook or other social media with a positive reference. Recommendations are very important. I would really appreciate the support. It really
Read More »Canyons and Cowboys
In 1988, I got a dream posting with my then employer, Price Waterhouse. Houston, Texas for 12-months. It was a no-brainer and we were packed and gone in a matter of weeks. We moved to a nice suburban town northeast of Houston called Kingwood into a rented house. It was so big, it felt like a palace to us, and it even had an outdoor Jacuzzi! Kingwood has grown since then, but even in the late 80’s it was quite large. To me all the streets looked the same at first, and all had similar names. That’s how, the first day at work in downtown Houston, it took me more than 2-hours to find the house! I was driving around and around and could not find the house at all.
Read More »Sand Castles and Pea Shooters
It is funny how some things remain with you through life as strong and vivid memories. They were those events that had an impact in some way I suppose, and this is why we remember them while forgetting much of the rest of our lives. Memory is a very strange thing. My mother often tells me that she can remember with clarity things from 50-years ago but what she did an hour ago is a mystery! For me, its names. I remember people and places and context but I am clueless as to their names – old school friends and the like now nameless faces. Of course, memories can be reinforced. If we talk about some event in the past often or if like us, you have old cine film
Read More »The Halloween Witch
My Dad was a practical joker. There was nothing more he enjoyed than playing a prank on someone. My brothers and I grew up keeping an eye out for his more familiar attempts at a prank. These would often include large knots of fishing line supplemented with eyes and appendages to look like a giant spider. As you entered a room, the ‘spider’ would rise or fall from the ceiling attached to the door handle with yet more fishing line. He scared a few people with that one! Another favorite was to fill your bed with metal toy cars under the mattress cover! My Dad was also quite the inventor. He would disappear into his shed where he had grinders, saws, lathes, and goodness knows what, and a few hours
Read More »Conversing With Santa
As a little lad, we lived in west Hull. It was a typical terrace house in a street called Westlands Road. No. 8 to be precise. My Dad added extensions to it here and there so a new kitchen extension and a front porch. The front porch was where the telephone was. Back then, telephones were black and had a handset that sat on a body with a rotary dialer. They made a nice sound when you turned that dialer! Like most little kids I suppose, I was obsessed with the phone. Every chance I got, I was there, in the porch, playing with the phone. One day, I guess I must have dialed just the right number of times a number that truly existed. I recall being a bit amazed
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