Reality

A Pain in the Neck

Today, I woke up with a pain in my neck and upper back which rapidly became a headache to boot. I wish there were chiropractors in the Czech Republic but there are not so I make do with a heat patch and two headache tablets. I know that the heat patch will probably do the trick and that the headache pills will not. It’s bizarre really but I had this problem for about 15-years now and it must be related to the way I have slept. My chiropractor in The Woodlands could fix it with a quick twist of the neck! He always told me I had knocked a vertebrae out of alignment high up in my neck most likely by hanging my head off of the back of the

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If Only…..

These days I find myself reminiscing a lot. Usually its music that takes me back. A song on the radio, one played while I work or perhaps that tune that suddenly haunts my mind and will not go away. The problem is I have caught myself questioning a lot of things like I would never have imagined myself doing in the past. I have even caught myself thinking it might be nice just to be dead. I wonder, is this what all mid-50’s people think? You get up and you feel the aches and pains and then you look in the mirror and this wrinkled, rumpled, worn out and overweight looking creature stares back and you think – Who the fuck is that? Of course, you know it’s you……. and

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Canuting

The title of this post is a made up word. Canuting comes from Canute and behaving like him. Who on earth is Canute I hear you ask mentally if not out loud. King Canute was King of Norway, England, Denmark and parts of Sweden who lived between 985 or 995 – 1035. More information may be found here. Any English school child will be more than familiar with the story of King Canute and the waves. In this story, the King is adored by his courtiers and proclaimed to be all powerful so powerful in fact that he can control the elements. To demonstrate the foolishness of such claims, Canute has his throne placed on the beach and from there, he orders the tide to stay out. As the tide

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Nationalism

At college I joined the territorial army. The union jack and the national anthem always stirred my emotions. I was deeply proud of being British. I even flirted with nationalist politics but was frankly put off by the other people I met on the right wing fringes of the Tory party. Even then, I liked to buck the trend. It was trendy to be a leftie so I did the very opposite like the contrarian Aquarian that I am. But I grew up. Firstly, I traveled a lot. At first inside the UK with three years in the midlands, a year in Leeds, three years in Glasgow, three years in Aberdeen, 3 years in London. To be honest, my parents liked travel too so even by age 16 I had

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How are The Stars Aligned?

I seem to be going through a very strange phase at the moment. I’m wondering if it has anything to do with the Moon so if you are an astrologer, let me know would you? I am an Aquarian with Moon in Taurus, Mars and Venus in Capricorn and Mercury also in Aquarius….. just in case you want to offer some advice. I seem to attract disrespectful or strange behaviour. This morning, I almost got run down on a pedestrian crossing, also last night. I may as well be invisible on those crossings. When driving, it’s always me that people cut off or wish to pass at 20km/hr faster than the speed limit and so drive 6cm behind me. Around me, people are fighting and in bitter discord with people

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Unrelenting Propaganda and Politics

All my life I have been told what is good for me. The British newspapers and news outlets love those stories and print them all of the time. Of course, back in the early days of my life, I like everyone else, believed them. I switched from yummy butter to rather sloppy and disgusting margarine, I welcomed flourine in my water and my toothpaste and so on…. but not any more. It is without doubt all propaganda and lies. Just yesterday, I read how Margarine is bad for you and we should eat butter. A total reversal of position. These days, the shrillness of the global warming story just about pips the shock horror stories of an endless ice age of twenty years ago. Truth – if there is any

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Now, Where is that Curse?

There are times when I find myself contemplating a little black magic. Yep, I have to be honest and say that there really are times when I think about delivering a really good and debilitating curse. Hell, there are times, if I am honest, when my thoughts are less than pristine and I do come very close to issuing a mental curse or hex. For this reason, I will never be a good magician as I must go back continually to the drawing board of ‘know thyself’ and work on that sudden rush of blood to the head that I experience from time to time and that will one day cause my fall. I must let it all be water off a duck’s back as they say. I recall taking

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Is Anyone Listening?

For the last 20-years or so I have been more than involved in marketing. From being VP of Marketing for a software company in the late 1990’s to being an analyst and consultant well known for delivering insightful Go to market strategies and marketing programs, marketing is in my blood. Through those decades a lot has changed about marketing though. Back in the 1990’s there was no such thing as social media. It was all about print ads, mailing campaigns and trade shows. You got the sense as well that most people were marketed to and a few did the actual marketing. We studied our audience and potential audience – their habits and needs – and then put in place some tactics and messages to promote the brand/product/service to that

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Music and Memories

I really have a terrible memory. I cannot remember the details of what I was doing last week never mind last year and I am often surprised to be told what I had done at some particular event that I have no recollection of whatsoever. For example, I came across some old computer files yesterday – hockey statistics for my eldest son from a decade ago. It made interesting reading especially the four games played in a tournament in St. Louis. I could swear I had never been there and yet there was suddenly a glimmer of a memory and boom – I remembered the arch there and it all came flooding back. To my defense, ice hockey rinks all look the same after a while and much of the

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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

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