Moments
A little reminiscing Passing of a life Not even thrilling It’s been a long ride Dancing through time Losing my pride Where did it go Where did they go All of those people All of those places Those ups and those oh so downs Times and time, sand grains falling Moments of glory and moments of hell Moments when you knew that you’d done well Listening to second hand Bolan A Child of his revolution Just like that Jean Jeanie Crossing the Atlantic Ocean Houston, I heard you calling Or am I confusing you with the Clash? All that trans Energy wasted Never did make my splash Where did it go What did I really do All of those faces All of those names The heights and the valleys The
Read More »Customer Service East of the Rhine….
I love living in the Czech Republic I really do. It is beautiful, relatively inexpensive (outside of Prague), full of very nice people and has great beer and food. One thing it lacks however is an understanding of what customer service is. When you live somewhere like the Czech Republic you really do begin to yearn for the American customer service experience. I say American because to be honest, British customer service isn’t all that great either…. but, its not this bad! Let me give you a small example. In an earlier post, I mentioned a bill for natural gas. The company in question is RWE, a major German energy company. You would think then that customer service would be high on the agenda of a company supplying energy to
Read More »Sometimes Everything Just Goes Tits Up….
This last few weeks has been pretty interesting. Its not so much that we have a had a run of bad luck but that things just appear to be testing and frustrating us. First off, we have a had a string of unexpected bills. First we got a fine for having no car insurance last year for a few days – it just arrived in the mail saying we notice you had no car insurance and here is your fine, signed the Czech Government. They are correct actually as the car was leased and insurance included and I forgot to get new insurance when the lease ran out (and no one wrote from said insurance company saying would you like to keep your insurance going)… Next, we got a gas
Read More »Finding an Audience
How do you find an audience? Some people manage it. Others don’t. Is it luck? I don’t think it is necessarily talent – although my perceptions of talent my not be your view. I have blogged and written pretty much twice or more a week on this and other blogs since about 2004 or around 10-years. I don’t have much of an audience. My books don’t sell well. I have failed to find an audience. The hint though on how to build an audience was always right there. My single blog post about sex in the Czech Republic still gets more traffic than all my other writings put together. Is that a sad indictment of me or just a sad indictment full stop? Maybe I should give up? When I
Read More »Learning to Ski After Age 50
Learning to ski later in life is an experience. Just getting the ski boots on is an almighty struggle and by the time those boots are on, I am exhausted. Then off you tromp as best you can with immoveable ankles and carting what seems to be two tons of skis over the shoulder. All around others from the age of three all the way to pension age move with effortless ease while you feel like an elephant on ice. Next, you carefully put on the skis. A balancing act in of itself as the damn things slip and slide making you look like something out of a cartoon whose legs are whirling frantically but there is no forward progress. Now, with huge attachments to your legs making it nigh
Read More »Taking Responsibility
Last night I saw someone had shared an “Occupy Democrat” post on Facebook. I find it quiet interesting how such political propaganda (from all sides) like this gets air time and even more interesting are the comments. However, these things are lies designed to manipulate, polarize and alienate. I will use the words of someone else to describe what I mean… Lies and Deception are the enemy of the Truth. They are put forward into the minds and hearts of the people of Earth by those who rage against what is. They are spoken, propagated and acted upon by those with a vested interest in keeping the understanding of the Truth from reaching the Consciousness of each individual. Lies and deception are insidious, for once they have been believed and
Read More »Just Words
If I am honest I would say at times I wonder why I write anything at all. I sometimes feel like there isn’t much point as I really don’t have an avid fan base or readership to talk of. I often feel as if my words go unread. Despite that I keep writing. I guess that there are a number of reasons why including the hope that one of these days one of my books will sell a few copies, because I enjoy writing whether or not I am very good at it and I have things to say. I think those are all good reasons. As I have said before, its a competitive business writing. I am comfortably in the majority when I say nobody reads what I write.
Read More »Discipline and Routine
I am a man who likes routine. I have to admit that, though this may make me dull and boring and isn’t necessarily an Aquarian trait, I like routine. What I mean is that I like a schedule. Change is inevitable but lack of routine creates anxiety in me….Sticking to a routine requires discipline. Just recently, I don’t appear capable of that self-discipline. The result is that I become a mess of anxiety that achieves less, does nothing and, since this becomes an endless cycle, I will eventually disappear up my own arse I am sure. Part of the problem is that I am sick and cannot muster the energy to apply the self-discipline. I have finally given up on the ginger, lemon and honey teas, disgusting-colored fruit and vegie
Read More »Finding Middle Ground
These days I see increasing polarization of views. As I have said many times before, you only have to go to any news or political site and check out the comments and discussions – it isn’t discussion, it’s angry, opinionated people dissing each other. I even wrote an article that I am sure raised some eyebrows and maybe lost me a few ‘friends’ called New Age Socialists – I realized afterwards it should probably have been called New Age Fascists but never mind. The fact is that people seem to hold and even gravitate to more and more extreme views and more and more despise others for holding the opposite viewpoint. STOP ALREADY! Over the last 10-years or so I have been taught to reconcile the opposites. I have delved
Read More »Complexity Unchained
How many passwords do you have to remember? To be honest, I don’t know if I could count all the passwords and PINs etc. that I need to remember but I would guess it at around 75. Life is complex. I won’t get into all of the details but being a citizen of two countries and yet living in a third is part of the complexity – especially if one of those countries – the USA – treats its exPat citizens as criminals. My US tax return recently filed ran to 122 pages! I killed a tree for the US Government folks. Oh, and I still had to file my FACTA as well and my Czech tax return – which despite the love of bureaucracy here – was just 3
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