September Edition of Fleet Life and Elvetham Heath Directory
Thanks to Rosie Amber for including The Last Observer….
Read More »The Sea
I think my favorite place to be is by the Sea, which is strange because I live in a land locked country now. But for most of my life, I have lived close to the ocean either in Hull or Houston. Perhaps the Sea is in my blood coming from a fishing port on the east coast of Britain – an island. Whatever it is, the ocean sings to me whether azure blue or broiling grey, the smell, sights and sound of an ocean raises me up. I think of water as essentially a feminine element influenced by the Moon. A magnetic element that draws you to it. One that cleanses and washes away dirt, tiredness and sin reinvigorating the body and the soul. A body of water is like
Read More »Life is But A Dream
I recall singing that song when I was a small child and wondering what did it mean? – Life is just a dream? Row, row, row your boat, Gently down the stream. Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, Life is but a dream. But where did this come from and who wrote it? A bit of research suggests that the earliest printing of it was in 1852 but who wrote it and why seems lost in the mists of time. If anyone knows, please let me know… I thought life a dream when I was a child or rather, I thought it a game that I controlled. It was a sort of virtual reality (as it would be called now) and I was sat in a box connected to a machine that
Read More »Patterns in the Rain
I have always loved rain. Somehow rain always gives me a sense of cleansing and renewal and to walk in rain calms me. Throw in a bit of lightening and ripple of thunder and I am child again in awe of nature. The magical power of water is often forgotten but alluded to in the rites of baptism and ritual cleansing. That cold crystal liquid, a mixture of two gases in liquid form, can be used magically in so many ways either with physical water or with imagined water. Water can be charged with thoughts, emotions and with intent as with holy water and because of this property, it can be used in a myriad of ways to cleanse and renew. When water falls from the sky, it cleanses our
Read More »Divide et impera
What is the definition of divide and conquer? A strategy for achieving political or military control (my italics). There are a lot of ways to divide and conquer but the three that most easily come to mind are as follows; 1. Nationality 2. Religion 3. Race Politicians use all three of these and many others on an almost daily basis to gain what they want for their personal power. They pit us against one another by playing to our sense of injustice. The us and them statements designed to obtain an emotional response because if we surely thought about what we are being said we would recognise it as BS it really is. I’m English and a yorkshireman apparently. Why? Because by accident of birth I was born there. Nothing
Read More »Reminiscing About Summer
As I look out of my office window, I see a steady stream of drizzle. It is dark enough to have the lights on and if the truth be told, cold enough to put on the heating. It’s also august 27th and it has been like this for much of August. What happened to summer this year? From time to time some strange golden ball does appear in the sky emitting something that passes for heat but it is a pale washed out version of those seen in previous summers. If I hadn’t spent 12-days on Kos, I would swear summer was yet to arrive this year. I guess I shouldn’t moan too much. Maybe I simply betraying my English upbringing with my weather obsession? I remember as a small
Read More »On the Demise of Soup
When I was a kid my Dad made soup. It was tasty stuff full of veggies and meat and I adored it. If we didn’t have homemade soup then perhaps we would be treated to a can of Tomato soup. Soup was a part of the meal though back then. I suppose in recent decades, convenience foods have made a big chunk in most people’s diets and soup – real soup – seems to have disappeared a casualty of the war on dining (or preparation?) time. In the US, I rarely saw soup either except perhaps for the soup and salad restaurants where you could buy a hearty soup and fill a plate with salad for lunch. Soup, it seems is unpopular, unloved and old fashioned. Here in the Czech
Read More »All is One
I looked down onto and across a very strange and unfamiliar landscape. It was a rocky, largely barren place with sharpened peaks rising all around. Yellows and grays beneath an azure sky. It was like looking into a vast ampitheater and I recall thinking that the heat of the midday sun must be unbearable down there in the center. Strange, because ‘down there’ was really up there on top of a flattened peak of dust and bare rocks. It was a strange and crazy point of vantage that I had of this scene. There were a number of squarish whitened buildings dotted around in the yellow-green valleys – signs of life at least. It was then that I noticed that atop the flattened rocky peak in the center of my
Read More »Best Laid Plans and Other Strange Tails – Out 1st September 2014
OK call me mad or whatever you wish but I will be publishing my 5th collection of poetry on September 1st. Titled Best Laid Plans and Other Strange Tails, it will be available in paperback and Kindle versions as of that date and I will launch it with a special promotion too so keep your eyes peeled! For those who enjoy poetry, I already have several poetry collections out including; – Moon Whispers – Astral Messages – Poems for the Little Room – Weird Tales All are available in paperback and Kindle formats on all Amazon sites and also directly from me. This may or may not be the cover…. we will see.
Read More »Europe is on Vacation
August. Everyone seems to disappear in August. Usually by 2pm on a business day, I would have had close to 50 or so emails and I would be deep into multi-tasking a number of different activities. Today? I have had 1 email on my business account and perhaps 8 on my personal account. OK so the US is about to get to the office on the east coast and things may pick up but here in Europe – everyone but me is on holiday! Yes. The entire continent is on vacation for August it seems. On Friday, I sent an email to a list of contacts about a conference. I would say 95% returned an I am on vacation message! We also decided to spend the weekend at a spa
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